Running with a Passion

Victoria Dotson rarely hesitates. When she recognizes a passion, you could say she runs with it.

It happened in the sixth grade at Rockcastle Middle School, when a friend persuaded her to try, well, running, for the school track team.

Victoria took off and never looked back, becoming one of most decorated runners in Kentucky history, winning 13 state championships in cross country and track and field, including the 2017 state cross country title. She won titles in multiple other state competitions and was recruited to run for Marschall University, where she set even more records. Victoria once ran a mile in 5 minutes and 13 seconds. For context, that’s an average of 11.5 mph, or a football field every 18 seconds.

But it happened even earlier. Her dad will tell you the story of how she used to watch PBS’s Nova, the science documentary series, every Wednesday night at the family’s Brindle Ridge home. One night, the show followed a doctor who was doing surgeries in poorer countries. It fascinated Victoria, and that was that. Since then, “there’s never been a time in my life that I have wanted to be anything but a doctor,” she said.

And it happened when, as a college senior, she scrubbed in to assist with a surgery for the first time. Afterward, she remembers “trying to hold back the smile on my face. I thought it was the greatest thing that I was involved in helping improve someone’s life. It was immediate gratification. Since then, any chance I get to scrub in on surgery, I take it.”

Now, the first-year University of Kentucky medical student volunteers at Surgery on Sunday, a Lexington nonprofit that provides medically necessary outpatient surgeries at no cost to eligible individuals.

Knowing Victoria’s decisiveness, the sound is sweet to the ears of Rockcastle Regional Hospital’s leadership team when they hear her talk about how, upon completing her medical training, she plans to come back to Rockcastle County to serve her community as a general surgeon.

“We’re thrilled that Victoria wants to return home,” said Brandy Bullock, practice manager of Rockcastle Medical Arts. Part of Bullock’s job is to identify young local talent and shepherd them along their pathway.

Victoria’s first experience at the hospital was as a health science student in high school, when she worked as a phlebotomist. While in college, she worked one summer as a receptionist at Rockcastle Regional’s respiratory care center. In both roles, she relished being part of a team and the connections she made with patients. “It was eye-opening to me. These experiences gave me an appreciation for the value of a healthcare team and the difference you as part of that team can make.”

It seems that Victoria, with her passion for running and healthcare, will match well with Rockcastle Regional, renowned for its high-quality health system as well as its expansive community outreach program, which includes a well-known longstanding monthly run/walk series called the Countywide Stride. Thousands have participated in the series over the years.

These days, most of Victoria’s time naturally is filled with studying, leaving little time for running, but her appreciation for its impact on her journey is evident.

In fact, when asked about the connection between the two passions, she didn’t hesitate.

“I believe my entire life has been God’s way of preparing me for medical school,” she said, “and I think my time running through high school and college – the discipline and perseverance and time-management skills I developed — was the number one thing to prepare me for medical school and a career in medicine.”