A Doctor’s Journey

Dr. Colby Ruiz was a teenager when he watched his first surgery.

He volunteered in the operating room at Valdosta’s South Georgia Medical Center, where his parents worked as nurses. 

Ruiz BS ’15 could have ended up in any of the hospital units except, at 14, he really didn’t want to wear the pink “candy striper” uniform of most hospital volunteers. When Ruiz learned that OR volunteers wore green, he was all in.

Even then, most volunteers didn’t actually cross the red line into the operating room. But Ruiz was offered an intriguing opportunity.

“Some of the doctors started to recognize me,” he recalls. “And then one day, one of the surgeons was like, ‘Hey, do you want to come and watch a case?’”

It became a regular occurrence as the young volunteer bonded with the surgeons.

He also met with patients during difficult times in their lives and developed empathy for their situations. These experiences ultimately set Ruiz on the path to becoming a vascular surgeon. 

But before he graduated high school and left Valdosta behind, some of the doctors offered advice and a challenge.

First, they suggested he study in-state for college, telling him he “couldn’t get a better education anywhere” than at the University of Georgia.

The challenge? 

“Don’t forget about us when you’re done.”

They meant: Don’t become another bright rural student who goes off for an education and never returns home.

Ruiz came to Athens as a pre-med student on a scholarship from UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO). He conducted research as a freshman in the lab of Walter Schmidt, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and a Georgia Cancer Coalition Scholar. There, Ruiz experimented with a protein associated with pancreatic cancer. He continued in the lab through his UGA tenure, eventually speaking at conferences with Schmidt and was even published in a research journal. 

After earning his ]degree in biological science from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Ruiz attended medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his M.D. and stayed five more years for his residency at UNC, training in vascular medicine. 

As a vascular surgeon, Ruiz helps people manage conditions ranging from blood clots to strokes and aneurysms. His patients are at risk of losing limbs or even death.

When operating, he might perform open surgery to repair an aorta, insert a stent to open an artery, or remove plaque from a vessel. 

His skills as a surgeon can literally be a matter of life and death. But his ability to show empathy when helping patients manage their care is just as essential.

“You’re managing people’s emotions, feelings, and thoughts and helping them make decisions because it’s all about what the patient wants to do.”

Ruiz’s residency ended last summer, and it was time to figure out what he wanted to do. A fully trained surgeon with a wife and children, Ruiz hadn’t forgotten about Valdosta or the challenge from the surgeons who inspired him.

“I came home, after all, to that same hospital that I started volunteering in back in the day,” Ruiz says.

In July, he returned to South Georgia Medical Center to join the vascular surgery team.

His work in Valdosta is just getting underway, but he’s already looking to establish opportunities to bring high school students in to follow him and learn about becoming a doctor.

And who knows? Maybe Ruiz will inspire future doctors to come back and practice medicine in their hometown.