More than 20 years after two doctors fought to save her life, Jana Campbell found herself sitting in their lecture halls – this time as a medical student. And on Friday (12 December), the moment came full circle as she walked across the stage to graduate as a medical doctor from the University of the Free State (UFS).

Dr Campbell received her MBChB degree during the Faculty of Health Sciences’ December graduation ceremony – a milestone she believes might never have been possible without Prof Stephen Brown, Head of the Division of Paediatric Cardiology, and David Griesel, Associate Professor in Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the UFS. Prof Brown, a paediatric heart specialist working at the Universitas Academic Hospital and the UFS, has been doing research into the Cyanotic Heart Disease amongst newborns. 

From a premature baby fighting for breath to a young doctor ready to save lives, Dr Campbell’s story is proof that survival can become purpose, and beginnings can become destiny.

Meeting her heroes 

“As a child, my parents always told me the story of how I got the mark on my chest,” she recalls. “To later sit in a classroom and learn from the very doctors who saved my life was surreal. You grow up hearing about these incredible people who gave you a chance at life – and one day they are teaching you how to save others.”

Born prematurely in January 2002 with severely underdeveloped lungs and heart, Dr Campbell’s chances of survival were slim. After doctors in Vryburg, North West, could do no more, she was rushed to Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein – where Prof Brown, a long-time friend of her father, became the first specialist to intervene. She underwent emergency surgery and was placed in the ICU, where both Prof Brown and Prof Griesel, a Neurodevelopmental Subspecialist, remained by her side, refusing to give up on her fragile life.

Years later, she met her lifesavers not in an operating theatre, but in class.

“Prof Brown recognised me immediately because of his friendship with my father. With Prof Griesel, I introduced myself after a lecture and he remembered me at once,” she told the story on how they met again. “It was emotional. These were the people who made my life possible, and now they were part of shaping the doctor I want to become.”

Her calling 

She believes those early days of survival planted a calling deep within her – to do for others what was once done for her. Says Dr Campbell: “What they showed me, was the power of showing up for people. Their actions didn’t just change my life – they created my future. Medicine became my way of passing that gift forward,” she concluded. 

Adding another layer of joy to her graduation, Dr Campbell completed her journey side-by-side with four of her school friends from C&N Sekondêre Meisieskool Oranje – Bea Louw, Carli Olivier, Ivanke van Jaarsveld and Katia Geustyn. Except for Dr Louw, who begins her internship at 2 Military Hospital in Cape Town, the group will continue their medical journey together at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein.