[NYTr] Calif Woman Among First in US to Earn M.D. at Free Cuban Med School

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Inside Bay Area - Oct 8, 2007
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_7117149?source=most_emailed

Alamedan gets M.D.from Cuba

Woman among first U.S. citizens to graduate from free program

By Angela Woodall, STAFF WRITER

There is one thing Kenya Bingham lacks that most newly minted doctors
have more than their share of — debt.

Instead of attending a U.S. program where the average graduate leaves
$115,000 in debt, the Alameda native went to medical school in Havana,
becoming one of the first U.S. citizens to graduate from the free
program sponsored by the Cuban government.

The program is called the Latin American School of Medicine, an
internationally certified medical school that started in 1999 to help
Latin American countries devastated by hurricanes Mitch and Georges.

Along with eight fellow U.S. citizens (three from California, four from
New York and one from Minnesota), Bingham studied medicine with a full
scholarship.

An Oakland woman, Carmen Landau, also was among the group. Bingham
received tuition, room, board, books, toiletries and pocket money — all
paid for by Cuba's Fidel Castro, who has been near or at the top of
this country's list of enemies for nearly half a century.

Applicants to the program, who come mostly from Latin America, the
Caribbean and Africa, are warned that the accommodations are far from
luxurious: shared, spartan dorms and lots of beans and rice and other
basic Cuban fare.

The program, devised by Castro and now enrolling nearly 9,000 students,
aims at changing the equation that harnesses young physicians with
debt, creates a barrier for students of color and working class
backgrounds, and leaves the health care needs of poor communities unmet.

Minorities made up only 12 percent of medical school population in the
United States in 2003, according to the Association of American Medical
Colleges.

The 29-year-old African-American Bingham said she was determined to be
a doctor with or without the free program.

But combining her love of Spanish with her goal of becoming a doctor
was like a dream come true, Bingham said while surrounded by friends
and family at a Saturday graduation celebration in Oakland.

"It seemed like it was almost too good to be true," she said in
describing how she found out six years ago during a study-abroad
program in Barbados that she had been accepted.

Weeks later, she was on her way. She hadn't had time to apply to other
medical schools.

The only catch to the Latin American Medical School was a nonbinding
agreement that students commit to working two years in a public health
clinic in underserved communities in their countries.

Bingham said she didn't need more than the verbal commitment she made
to pursue public health.

"Why wouldn't I want to serve people who need health care?"

Bingham graduated in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in Spanish language
and literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

That was the year the Latin American Medical School program opened up
to U.S. students, after members of the Congressional Black Caucus
visited Cuba, where health care is universally accessible but
bare-bones in terms of technology and equipment.

Seeing how much the Cuban doctors do with so few resources was one of
the biggest surprises, Bingham said.

The program was hands-on, she added. "Treating patients, delivering
babies — that was the best thing ever."

The first group of students from the United States arrived in Cuba in
2001, despite a ban on travel to Cuba for most U.S. citizens and an
economic, financial and commercial embargo that has been in place for
45 years.

The U.S. government imposed the blockade after Fidel Castro, who led
the 1959 revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Batista regime, took
control of U.S. properties, particularly the American Fruit Co.

The State Department, however, has verbally backed the medical program.

The California medical licensing board began recognizing the Cuban
medical program only after Bingham already was in Havana. She said she
was told that by the time she graduated six years later, the process
would be complete.

Politics and an aging infrastructure made the six years Bingham spent
in Havana a bit harder because she had more difficulty getting care
packages and communicating with friends or family in the United States
than students from other countries, she said.

But she said she refused to "Cuba bash."

"I'm now an M.D., and it's because of the Cuban government," she said.

It was her family, however, that inspired her.

Bingham's mother, Kathy Bingham, a medical assistant and licensed
vocational nurse, sparked her interest in medicine.

Also, education and the church were key elements in the family's life,
said her brother Brian Bingham, who is studying for his master's degree
in social work at California State University, East Bay, campus in
Hayward.

A younger sister, Jovon Bingham, is studying for a bachelor's in
nursing, also at CSU East Bay.

Their father, Berry Bingham, was the first elected school board member
in the history of Alameda, where the family lived.

"They really pushed education and for us to exceed expectations.
Failing was not an option. Not doing well was not an option," Brian
Bingham said.

Kenya Bingham said she wants to work in Africa or Guatemala someday.

But first, she must pass medical board examinations and apply for
residency, preferably in obstetrics and gynecology or in emergency
medicine, she said.

Highland Hospital's trauma center would her No. 1 pick, she added.