She touches children’s hearts, repairs them, then connects them with each other
Age: 39
Job Title: Assistant Professor, Pediatric Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist, Stollery Children’s Hospital, University of Alberta
When asked about one of the best days she’s had as a pediatric cardiologist, Carolina Escudero pauses.
“Well,” she says, “I had a great day yesterday.”
That day she’d had a follow up appointment with a 15-year-old with abnormal heart rhythms that were affecting her quality of life. Escudero performed an ablation and now the child can be as active as she wants.
“My best days at work are when you can see you’ve made a big difference in someone’s life,” she says. In her job, that happens a lot.
Escudero’s parents emigrated from Chile when she was two — her mom as a dentist and her dad an engineer. Escudero watched them work hard to get their certifications in Canada and that instilled a strong work ethic from a young age. She skipped a grade in school, was accepted into university at 16 and was the youngest student in her medical school at 20.
Now, she’s a pediatric cardiologist at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, the co-lead for the Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the U of A. She trains future pediatric cardiologists, connects kids with rare heart diseases through a national program and is the lead for the 3D Heart Project which uses three-dimensional models of hearts (with congenital heart disease) to educate parents, families and medical trainees.
“I love working with kids, seeing their resilience and strength. Their energy is infectious. Since I was young, I was drawn to medicine,” says Escudero.
This article appears in the Nov/Dec 2023 issue of Edify
