On May 9, Precilla Dsouza received her PhD from the University of Toronto's Institute of Medical Science at a special convocation to recognise her work on saving the lives of trauma patients.
45-year-old Precilla, an Indian migrant in Canada was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 when she was in the final stages of her PhD at the Faculty of Medicine at the university.
Despite her debilitating bile duct cancer which soon spread to her ovaries, liver and lungs, she decided to continue her PhD when doctors said she had just six months to live.
“I went through 20 gruelling months of fatigue while continuing to publish papers and give presentations, even when it was painful to walk,” says Precilla.
She was to be awarded her PhD in a convocation in June this year, but Precilla feared she may not live long enough to receive it.
The university’s Institute of Medical Sciences decided to hold a private degree presentation ceremony on May 9 in the presence of Precilla’s family, friends and colleagues.
Her work has helped match trauma patients to the most effective blood products to transfuse in order to manage bleeding and save their lives.
Precilla says she is happy to leave a legacy for her teenage daughter, Jadyn to achieve her goals.
“I hope I can inspire my fellow graduates to work hard, follow their dreams, and remember that life is short,” she writes in Hindustan Times.
Born in a small town in southern India, she moved to Canada in 2005 with her husband after she graduated in medical microbiology, and later studied clinical research in Canada.
She was the co-ordinator of a massive and groundbreaking clinical study involving more than 75 hospitals in Canada that required collecting data on cardiac arrest and trauma patients at risk of bleeding to death, which ultimately earned her a PhD spot at the UoT.
