Garima's Story

At the hospital, a patient refused to come out from beneath his bedsheets. His doctors pleaded and tried reasoning with him, all to no success. Garima Misra, a medical student on rotation, discovered that this patient had been bullied in college because of the neurofibromas covering his body. He was afraid that everyone at the hospital would judge him for his appearance, the same way that others did in the past. Yet, Garima saw him beyond his skin.

Garima, who had just started to get into poetry at the time, read one of her poems aloud to the patient. This one was about persistence, hardship, and rising above others’ expectations. For the first time since his hospital visit, the patient crawled out of the sheets and smiled.

Before Garima realized that poetry could help take care of her patients, she first discovered how it could help take care of herself.

Garima has always been a curious person and loved solving puzzles as a little kid. At eight years old, Garima was exposed to the most complex puzzle of them all: the human brain. Her fascination began when her grandfather suffered a stroke. Garima suddenly needed to know everything about the illness, from what caused it to how it transformed someone’s everyday life. This search for answers became her “calling”.

Garima did not have a straightforward journey, but going into medicine and sticking through the challenges was the best decision she has ever made. After her undergraduate studies, Garima wanted to attend a government medical school in her home country of India. To do so, she needed to take a highly competitive entrance exam, competing with roughly 1.5 million other students. Despite months of hard work and a decent score, Garima did not get accepted.

Garima was heart-broken. Within that disappointment, she found peace in journaling and singing. Using these artistic approaches to improve her mental health, Garima used that gap year to change her exam-taking strategies, switching from a more theoretical approach to a more practice and application-based one. Garima recalls that one of the greatest challenges at this time was hearing the demotivating commentaries from people around her, insisting that she would fail again. Yet, Garima knew she needed to ignore them and focus on her work, which was the only thing that could reliably bring her to success. Additionally, her strong support system of family and friends reminded her of her accomplishments and kept her going.

The second time taking the exam, Garima scored 100 points higher than her first attempt. She was one in about 100-150 students to get accepted into medical school for the MBBS program. Overall, the 5.5-year medical school was a rollercoaster, but Garima’s coping strategies of incorporating the arts, as well as that stable support system, allowed her to have a very positive experience. From seeing the human brain for the first time to hanging in there with patients and listening to them when they needed it most, Garima will cherish these memories for the rest of her life.

On rough days during medical school, Garima began writing poetry. She would create what she called “actionable poems”, acknowledging the stress she was feeling and then motivating herself by recognizing her ability to accomplish the task at hand. She found that giving a name to her emotions made the overwhelming flow of them less daunting— a practice she would later share with her patients. Writing allowed Garima to process failure without letting it define her. It helped her keep sight of her goals and forgive herself for inevitable setbacks along the way. Garima continued to consistently write personal and recreational poetry past medical school.

Poetry also unlocked a way to reflect on past experiences. Recently, Garima recalled that impactful moment with the patient with neurofibromatosis and attributed a poem to him. This poem got accepted for publication in the Neurology journal, serving as a prime example of the uplifting, trusting connection a healthcare professional should have with their patients.

Currently, Garima is in Jacksonville, Florida, where she is working on two projects in the neurocritical care research department at Mayo Clinic. One project involves developing portable brain scanning technology for stroke patients that would be accessible in rural areas. The other project explores mathematical, segmentation, and AI-based methods to evaluate subarachnoid blood in the brain, as well as some AI-guided procedures for phlebotomy.

Aside from investing her time in research, Garima has been a part of the NeuroHumanities Network since April 2026. Through this commitment, she intends to humanize medicine and establish deeper connections with patients by integrating creative arts into the field. As Garima learned from her patients during her medical school years, taking care of people starts way before the treatment. To really trust their physicians, patients must feel heard and valued by them first.

Garima’s story suggests that the way you care for others and for yourself can go hand-in-hand. The same poetry that once helped her endure uncertainty became her way of making the patients that were otherwise withdrawn from those around feel seen. Medicine taught her the intricacies of the brain, but arts have shown her how to reach the person behind it.