VGCC Student Overcomes Health Obstacles To Excel, Achieve Goals

Caroline Lovell was born with her right arm much shorter than her left, but that hasn’t been a major problem for the feisty Youngsville resident. She drives, swims and types … just about anything she wants or needs to do.

“I learned to cope quickly as a child,” said Lovell, 30, a Vance-Granville Community College student majoring in Medical Office Administration. “I couldn’t master the monkey bars; I’d fall off. But I didn’t let that or anything else stop me from what I wanted to do.”

Other physical problems have, however, caused Cara, as she’s known, to make some major adjustments in her life.

“My first surgery came when I was seven hours old,” said Lovell, who has had “about” 20 operations. Some of those took place in Greensboro, where she lived until eight years ago when her mother, Susan, married Leslie Shelton, and they moved to his home in Youngsville. “I’ve been in and out of hospitals all my life,” she said.

She was born with only one kidney and, although she was diagnosed with diabetes at age 5, Cara reports she got along “okay” through elementary school. Middle school and high school were more difficult because her blood sugar fluctuated up and down, making it difficult to concentrate.

Following graduation from high school at age 17, Cara says, “I didn’t want to go to college then; I just wasn’t ready.” She took several jobs, but her diabetes worsened and damaged her one kidney until it failed. She went on a transplant waiting list and underwent dialysis 2 ½ years until a kidney became available.

Caroline Lovell received her transplanted kidney and pancreas in August 2000 at Duke University Hospital. She reports that her doctors at Duke have been very pleased with how she has done. “No more diabetes, no more dialysis,” she says.

“I had begun classes at Vance-Granville’s Franklin County Campus in Information Systems in 1999, but I had to take off almost a year to recover from the transplant surgery,” she said. Upon returning to school, she changed her major to Medical Office Administration and is on track to graduate with an Associate in Applied Science Degree in May 2004.          

Upon graduation, Cara would like to work somewhere in the Duke Hospital complex, perhaps as a medical transcriptionist.

Linda Hall, program head for Office Systems Technology at Vance-Granville Community College, taught Lovell medical transcription this semester. “She was a very good transcription student,” Hall said. “Caroline finished all the required work in time, while many students have to spend extra time getting it completed.

“She will do very well in medical transcription, of that’s what she chooses to do after graduation,” said Hall.

Caroline Lovell is serving during this school year as an Ambassador, one of those students chosen to represent Vance-Granville Community College at events on campus and in the community. “I applied to be an Ambassador because I wanted to honor my school, and I wanted to be recognized for what I’ve achieved and accomplished,” she said.

 Cara always seems to be smiling, and that smile gets even larger when asked about her experiences at Vance-Granville Community College. “I absolutely love Vance-Granville,” she said. “My instructors have been very good, and they have given me the opportunity to show what I can do.

 “People underestimate the things I can do,” said Caroline Lovell. “My so-called handicaps have never stopped me from doing whatever I want to do.”