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IVCC graduate finds healing through art and medicine · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: IVCC graduate finds healing through art and medicine. Written by
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  Speaker 1: Shaw Local News Network. This article is being read by
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  Speaker 1: an automated voice brought to you by Everlet Aaron's Ari
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  Speaker 1: Ochuba has spent his life pursuing two passions that on
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  Speaker 1: the surface seem worlds apart, art and medicine. But for
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  Speaker 1: the physiatrists completing his medical residency at a major Florida
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  Speaker 1: health care system, they are inseparable. Finding ways to use
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  Speaker 1: art in whatever tasks or functions I am doing has
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  Speaker 1: given me a way to keep passionate with both things
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  Speaker 1: and find ways they can work together. Otuba said, medical
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  Speaker 1: illustrations let me give insight into what I do. As
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  Speaker 1: a boy, Ochuba was drawn to science shows and surgical procedures.
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  Speaker 1: His earliest drawings reflected that curiosity, including one of a
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  Speaker 1: human figure with a leg and foot jutting out at
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  Speaker 1: a ninety degree angle. I could not grasp what the
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  Speaker 1: body looked like, but I wanted to communicate the idea
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  Speaker 1: of it. He recalled. When his family moved from Nigeria
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  Speaker 1: to the Illinois Valley, o Cuba felt isolated and culture shocked.
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  Speaker 1: Attending Illinois Valley Community College opened doors to friendships and
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  Speaker 1: sparked his curiosity about the world around him. Before graduating
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  Speaker 1: from IVCC in twenty seventeen, Otuba's artwork appeared in campus
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  Speaker 1: art shows, but it was his role organizing the college's
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  Speaker 1: popular science festival si Fest that shaped his career trajectory.
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  Speaker 1: Professor Matthew Joel appointed Ochuba to lead the event and
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  Speaker 1: showed confidence in his abilities. He told me, I was
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  Speaker 1: creative and smart, and I could figure this out and
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  Speaker 1: move to the next step. Then the step after that
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  Speaker 1: would reveal itself. Otuba said, I do not remember what
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  Speaker 1: the issue was, but I remember the words. Organizing sci
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  Speaker 1: Fest tested Ochuba and helped him develop skills he still
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  Speaker 1: uses as part of a medical team. As his medical
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  Speaker 1: career progressed, Otuba refined the fusion of art and medicine.
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  Speaker 1: He researched, wrote and illustrated articles for medical journals, and
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  Speaker 1: was featured in a review of practitioners whose passion for
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  Speaker 1: the arts is as vital as their healing skills. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as a physiatrist who leads rehabilitation for people with muscle
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  Speaker 1: and spinal cord injuries and diseases, Ochuba applies both disciplines
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  Speaker 1: to his work. My medical training teaches me to consider
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  Speaker 1: all that is going on, not just a fracture, but
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  Speaker 1: the whole person, the medical history, the home, the culture, everything.
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  Speaker 1: He said in art, I am not just looking at
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  Speaker 1: an apple, but an apple on a table and the
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  Speaker 1: light and shadow. I want to make sure this or
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  Speaker 1: that is in the picture so the picture becomes clearer
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  Speaker 1: and more vivid. Ochuba was drawn to medicine after witnessing
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  Speaker 1: a family member's illness. I saw what poor health and
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  Speaker 1: lack of health care could do to devastate a human being.
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  Speaker 1: He said. That leaves an impression on you. And what
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  Speaker 1: also left an impression is when I saw what medicine
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  Speaker 1: could do to alleviate that Medicine can bring hope. As
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  Speaker 1: a young African American man in medicine, Ochuba is aware
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  Speaker 1: of his visibility. I encounter patients who look like me,
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  Speaker 1: who are stunned that I can do this or that
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  Speaker 1: they have the option to do it too. He said,
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  Speaker 1: I hope one day more people in medicine look like me.