Dr. Laecio Rocha '21 on surgical obstetrics fellowship in Seattle

 Laecio Rocha, MD, MHA, MPH is a 2021 UMHS graduate who is currently completing a one-year surgical obstetrics fellowship at  Providence Everett Regional Medical Center
in Everett, Washington in the metro Seattle area. He grew up in a small town in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and moved to the United States at age 17. After finishing his family medicine residency with obstetrics training, Dr. Rocha decided to pursue additional specialized training in high-risk surgical obstetrics. He credits UMHS for providing a strong medical education as well as guidance on the next steps in his medical career. Dr. Rocha's sister, Dr. Suzana Rocha, is also a UMHS graduate who is practicing family medicine in Georgia.

UMHS spoke to this accomplished doctor recently about his incredible journey from the Brazilian Amazon to suburban Seattle, why he chose UMHS over other medical schools, why he loves surgical obstetrics, and his advice for others who dream of one day becoming a doctor.

President Warren Ross with Dr. Rocha at UMHS onboarding in St. Kitts. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Rocha.

UMHS Endeavour: Tell us about yourself, Dr. Rocha.

Dr Laecio Rocha: I am a 2021 UMHS graduate. Yeah, and I'm currently doing my surgical obstetrics fellowship here in the Greater Seattle area, more precisely in the city of Everett, Washington at the Providence Everett Medical Center.

The surgical obstetrics fellowship is a one-year program for high-risk surgical procedures in the field of obstetrics. So pretty much I'm getting trained to do C-sections for this one year here at Providence Everett. And I'm doing this ever since I finished my residency, which was a few months ago in family medicine obstetrics. So right after I started my fellowship.

In June, you completed your family medicine obstetrics residency at Swedish Providence in Seattle. What were some of the highlights of that particular residency?

My family medicine obstetrics was a three-year residency program at Swedish Providence, Cherry Hill campus in downtown Seattle. I think the main difference about the full-spectrum family medicine residency that I have gone through is the difference between that and just a plain simple family medicine residency, whereas the training that I got over the last three years has to do more with encompassing everything within the field of medicine. I essentially take care of pediatrics, newborns included. I care for the elderly as well, 65 plus. I also do prenatal care and I do vaginal deliveries through that training as well. And on top of that, we also get trained on the various procedures. In my case, I was trained in vasectomies because that was a specific interest of mine. I was trained in colposcopies [to examine the cervix, vagina and vulva] as well, aside from a variety of other minor procedures such as toenail removals, incision and draining, biopsies, endometrial biopsies, et cetera.

From Brazil to UMHS in St. Kitts

You are originally from Brazil. Please tell us how you ended up in the U.S. and also attending medical school at UMHS.

I was born and raised in Brazil up until I was 17 and that's when I moved to the United States. My mother was already living in this great nation since 1995, 1996 and basically 2006 was the year when she could finally bring my sister and I to live in the U.S. as citizens. And we moved to the state of Washington, more precisely Kirkland, Washington, where I was able to finish my last two years of high school at Juanita High School in Kirkland. I went on to work on my AA degree at Bellevue Community College where I also got some of my pre-med classes done. And then I went to work on my bachelor's degree in public health at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. Washington has been home since 2006 to me.

What was the UMHS fifth semester in Maine like for you? Can you tell us a little bit about the faculty, the Kaplan prep course and anything that helped you prepare to do well on the USMLE Step 1 to help you do better in clinical rotations?

The fifth semester in Maine was very different from all the two years that you do in class in the beautiful island [nation] of St. Kitts and Nevis. So, more focused on your clinical skills and making sure that we're setting you to success pretty much for your USMLE Step 1. That's where you do your Kaplan course as well. And I believe you still have an exit exam that you do at UMHS Maine. I think the UMHS Maine semester is a good semester for you to go through that Kaplan course, find out what are the gaps that you have in your knowledge that you can fill in with that course, having just freshly finished at Saint Kitts and then focus on those. It's a pretty intense course. And then afterwards, every day after the course, pretty much that's when you spend time studying for your Step 1 exam.

And usually we do that, at least myself, I use UWorld, the bank of questions from UWorld to study for the Step 1. And then while you're doing those questions with UWorld, combined with your Kaplan plan, you can kind of get a gist of what are the knowledge gaps that you should be filling or knowing before you feel ready for that Step 1 exam. Aside from that, they also have the skills days at the Maine campus there, which I thought was pretty helpful to refresh some of the study that you read in the book, but also now preparing yourself to be ready to do those clinical skills when you pass your Step 1 and is finally ready to do your clinical rotations in the U.S. hospitals.

Dr. Rocha (center) with UMHS students rotating in Augusta, Georgia. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Rocha.

Is there anything else about your experience at UMHS that you'd like to share with current or prospective students or people that might be considering going into your field of specialty?

I like UMHS. I think UMHS is a good Caribbean school that trains you well for you to do well when you come to the mainland United States for your clinical rotations and also afterwards for your residency. I think UMHS covers the material that you need comparable to any medical school in the U.S. I also liked how supported we are from UMHS when it comes to making sure that we know the next steps. It can be pretty blurry for us going through medical school and not quite clearly knowing the next steps in your medical career. And I think UMHS gives you that vision and help and bump as well as in for you to know what's next on your medical career. It's hard to think what's ahead of you when you're so focused on getting your medical knowledge done in the island of Saint Kitts. I know for myself I was studying constantly, I don't know, 12 or more hours a day.

When you’re done with one portion and then moving on to the next portion, it can be a rough transition. That’s why I think UMHS was helpful in letting us know as to what was next and how to prepare for that literally step by step. For instance, like the ECFMG certificate, what do you for that and then what are the prerequisites, what do you need to get done, how far ahead, the cost and all of that. I think that was pretty helpful to me because I can only focus on one thing at a time that's so big in your medical career and knowing from UMHS what would be the next steps, that was helpful.

(Left) Laecio & Suzanna Rocha when they were kids in Brazil.  (Right) Rural school class picture in the middle of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil where Dr. Rocha & his sister grew up. Photos: Courtesy of Dr. Rocha.

Growing up near the Amazon in Brazil

Tell us a little bit more about where you grew up in Brazil. I understand that you lived somewhere near the Amazon rainforest, is that correct?

I had a very humble beginning and before I talk a little bit about that, I would like to let everyone know that hopefully my story is one that will inspire you. I do believe that there are no unique stories out there. There are no same stories out there. Every story is unique, but also being a Latino immigrant, I believe our stories are very similar for the most part. I was born and raised in a very small town in the middle of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, in the State of Pará. I lived without electricity and running water and essentially on a farm until I was 10 years old. I used to ride a horse with my sister who also happens to be a family medicine doctor in the U.S. these days. So, we would ride a horse for at least six to seven kilometers every day to get to the nearest rural school and that's how life was.

Do I regret having lived that life? Not a bit. I think all of that experience in my life helps me to relate best and better with my patient population these days when I see them in office and when they're telling me their life stories. I can relate to what poverty is, what poverty feels like, what hardship feels like as well. So, I think those things are some of the aspects of your life that also gets carried over to your profession and medical career when you're finally there seeing patients in front of you and reminding yourself that you've been there one day and then maybe now you can help them medically, but also with your life story and inspirations, maybe you can also be an inspiration to them as well. So that's how my life in Brazil was.

When I turned 14 years old, I went to a boarding school in Brazil. This boarding school was essentially for my high school. Essentially those boarding schools in Brazil, they tend to be on the expensive side of things. Fortunately, my mother who was already living in the States at that time was able to help us to get that good education and prepare as well for what was up to come after high school. I stayed in that boarding school from 2004 until 2006 and that's when we were finally able to move to the United States to live with my mother at the time. She had just gone through her citizenship process and was able to help with our citizenship process as well so we could finally come and live in this great nation.

Dr. Rocha at graduation ceremony at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Rocha.

Coming to America & becoming a doctor

You’ve been in the USA almost 20 years. Did you always want to be a doctor when you were a kid? What was it that inspired you to go into medicine?

That's a great question. I have always wanted to be a doctor and I would write that on my school papers or homework, and I remember there were some letters that I would send to my mom in the United States and I had that mentioned already on those letters that I wanted to become a doctor. Inspiration-wise, I think the first contacts that I would have with medical personnel, Brazil has what we call a universal healthcare system, much similar to what the UK and Canada have. And through that system we would have healthcare workers come to the farm to visit us for vaccination, healthcare education, prevention and things like that.

And then I would see those people coming into where I lived with interest of caring for my health. There be, in my case, being a child, the vaccines, making sure that I didn't have any stomach bugs or symptoms that would have to be investigated. Through that whole visitation and caring through that universal healthcare system, that's how they found that I had malnourishment at the time as well and I had to undergo treatment, which pretty much allowed them to treat my malnourishment in the place that I lived with fortification and making sure that I had all the healthcare that I needed where I lived.

Tell us a little about your undergraduate studies.

While working on my AA degree here at Bellevue College in Washington, I already had in mind that I  
wanted to go into medical school. So, I used some of that time to do some of my pre-med classes, like organic chemistry and biology and things like that. Then I went on for my undergrad education at
Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. There, I studied public health with a specialization in community health education. With the public health degree, I knew that I wanted two things. One is a plan B because as an immigrant and not having much money in this country, you should always have a plan B. Even though your dream is medical school and you're going for that, but you should always have a plan B. My plan B was to work as a public health specialist in the State of Washington if everything else fell apart. I had that under my belt as a plan.

Through that, I did the rest of my pre-med classes. I got to be the director, the public health and pre-nursing director for the club there at the time at Central Washington. I got to go to Yakima, Washington, which is maybe a 30-minute drive from Ellensburg to do my internship in public health, which was a diabetes education program for my Latino communities in that area. At the time, we had one of the highest rates of diabetes in childhood in Yakima County.

What made you decide to attend UMHS for medical school?

I think UMHS was the choice because of the security it gave me as a medical student and future doctor. If you go into the Caribbean, I think you should always be very careful where you step into as far as is the place that you're considering an accredited school. Will a school be equipped with partnerships and training and next steps to help you practice in the U.S.? What are the ties that this school has? And foremost, [talk to] people that have gone to that school, and ask what was their experience in that school as far as training? As far as lifestyle?  As far as support?

When I started to dig more into UMHS and saw what they offered, I saw what people were talking about. Things like alumni; the rates of passing the USMLE exams; the training that they got; the partnerships that they got; the types of studies that they were offering to the students such as the Kaplan courses; the skill courses, making sure that their academia, the professors were well-trained in the things that you needed to know for your USMLE exam, but also in medicine. So, I have nothing to say about that side of training from UMHS and I could not have picked a better school to go in the Caribbean than UMHS—that I can say for sure.

You have a sister who's also a UMHS graduate. Please tell us about her.

Suzana is my sister, Suzana Rocha, Dr. Rocha also, but in Tifton, Georgia. We have very similar paths as far as growing up and up to medical school. We have pretty much followed each other every step of the way on different things from high school to undergrad to everything. But the difference that happened with the training was when she matched in Georgia for family medicine, which is a plain family medicine program. The majority of the programs that we have in the U.S. these days are like those, which is a little bit different than the full-spectrum family medicine with obstetrics residency program that I went here in Seattle.

In her case, her passion has geared towards having a family practice and seeing patients in their practice, but also being a hospitalist down in Georgia, whereas my passion is very different, which is in the field of obstetrics and now specializing in surgical obstetrics for C-sections, which is not her favorite part. So, she uses me as a consultation sometimes so we can talk about. Because she happens to be pregnant now, so how her prenatal care is going in, answering any questions that she might have. Beautiful paths, different paths, but both in the field of family medicine.

Dr. Rocha at work (left) and at an alumni reunion in Seattle (right). Photos: Courtesy of Dr. Rocha.

How UMHS inspired him to pursue obstetrics

I know you've just started your fellowship, but what are some of your goals in this particular fellowship that you've just started at Providence?

As I had mentioned about UMHS being a great school, I believe I also got a great training through residency, family medicine with obstetrics, being a full spectrum program that also triggered me to have even a greater passion for the field of obstetrics. I could have graduated now in June and be a board-certified family medicine doctor as I am. And having gone my way to practice and do vaginal deliveries, which is what I was trained for, aside from everything else in medicine that I got trained for. But I wanted more, I wanted to get that training into the surgical aspects of things. And if you know places that trains you for family medicine with obstetrics, you would know as well that Washington is pretty much the place to be for not only being a family medicine with obstetrics physician, but also a place to get trained into that.

We have these days about 50 programs all throughout the United States that offer the fellowships that train you into high-risk surgical obstetrics. Here in Washington, we have three of them. The one that I am currently right now is in Providence Everett. I just started not too long ago and it's going to go on into next July. It's a one-year, very intense programming, pretty much essentially training you on how to do and perform a C-section. Some of you may already do obstetrics in your family medicine training and you would know that sometimes that patients would be needing or requiring a surgical C-section or they would try a vaginal birth but would then need a surgical obstetrics intervention for the various reasons out there. I knew that much that I wanted to get trained into the surgical OB world and here I am getting that training done.

Dr. Rocha (top, far left) with fellow rotating family medicine students in Seattle. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Rocha. 

Anything else that you'd like to say to current or prospective students or to alumni or anything that we haven't covered?

I think as an alumnus, we can offer very good insights on what's up ahead in the medical field for students or prospective students. I think as a student or prospective student at UMHS, it's hard sometimes to see what's up ahead of you because you're so focused on one thing at a time and that by itself is so much and a lot. So, because of that, I advise you to use your resources. You have us as alumni, you can always reach out to us. UMHS students are all throughout the United States practicing in various settings. They would have connection, they would have good insights for you, they would have good advice for you as well on how to study and what to focus on statewide. The practice in medicine varies very much from state to state. Some states are very welcoming to IMG students, other states not so much. And other states are in the process of becoming more friendly with IMG students as well.

I think that's when UMHS alumni can come in and help you by maybe giving you a little bump on how to choose, how to pick where you want to go, which programs you should apply for, what it looks like to practice. For instance, myself as a family medicine resident with obstetrics [training], not a lot of people know that family medicine doctors can also do many other things such as you can sub-specialize in obstetrics, sleep medicine, or you can be a sports medicine doctor and you can be an integrative medicine doctor. The options are out there. It's just knowing that you can do a lot with the degree that you pick. And if you want to go into other fields as well, we have anesthesiologists, internal medicine doctors, we have neurologists—all from UMHS. You have an array of options to pick from and use us as resources as well as you're trying to pick where you want to practice, how you want to practice, and what that life is going to look like for you as a physician in the future.

Email Dr. Rocha at laeciolr@gmail.com

(Top photo): Dr. Laecio Rocha. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Rocha.