UF medical school graduate shares his journey from Haiti to Gainesville
Anesthesiology resident Fritz-Gerald Charles, M.D. ’18, hopes his research will impact global health
Fritz-Gerald Charles, M.D.
Photo by Mindy C. Miller
June 23, 2022 – Despite growing up in a small northern Haiti town that did not have 24-hour access to electricity, Fritz-Gerald Charles, M.D. ’18, enjoyed his middle-class childhood with four older siblings and his father, a school principal. However, his life was nearly upended when he developed an inguinal hernia at age 7 in an area with an underequipped and understaffed hospital.
Charles, who will complete his anesthesiology residency at UF this month, said the surgeon who cared for him that year and likely saved his life became his role model and a hero to his family. Following his recovery, Charles knew he wanted to become a doctor. As he prepares to leave The Swamp for an upcoming fellowship across the country, he aims to take his experiences growing up in Haiti and training at UF to impact global health as a physician researcher.
“Seeing these situations motivated me to help people in the same way my surgeon helped me years before,” Charles said. “I felt privileged to have recovered and knew I wanted to give back to my community one day.”
As a teenager, Charles moved to the capital city of Port-au-Prince for better educational opportunities, where a population of more than 3 million Haitians receive care from one general hospital. He recalled walking to school and seeing people who couldn’t be admitted into the overflowing hospital waiting on the sidewalk outside, sometimes for days, some dying before they could receive care.
A period of political unrest prompted Charles and his family to move to the U.S., relocating in the Fort Lauderdale area, where he continued learning about the topics that fascinated him — chemistry, physics and math — by completing an associate’s degree in pharmacy, followed by a bachelor’s degree in nuclear medicine technology at Barry University. He then completed an internship in nuclear medicine technology in a pharmacy at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. His colleagues there noticed his talent in research and passion for health care and encouraged him to apply to medical school.
Fritz-Gerald Charles, M.D. '18, and Timothy Martin, M.D., snap a picture at UF Health Shands Hospital on Charles' last day of his anesthesiology residency at UF.
After earning his undergraduate degree in nuclear medicine technology from Barry University, Charles said choosing to attend medical school at UF was largely guided by one of the first interactions he had with a faculty member: James Lynch, M.D., assistant dean of admissions.
“I saw Dr. Lynch talking with a patient and treating that patient like an equal,” Charles said. “Even in a situation where he didn’t agree with the patient, he found common ground and respected him. I thought, ‘This is the model of a physician I want to be.’”
Charles found great success as a medical student at UF, collaborating with anesthesiology professors Bruce Spiess, M.D., and Chris Giordano, M.D., on groundbreaking research regarding the chemical structure of a form of vitamin B-12. In 2018, Charles was awarded the J.S. Gravenstein Award, given annually to an outstanding College of Medicine graduate who intends to pursue anesthesiology.
Charles will move across the country in July to begin a cardiothoracic anesthesiology fellowship at Stanford University, researching blood transfusions and combining his medical research interests with artificial intelligence.
“It’s so rewarding to know you’re using your skills to make a difference in the world,” he said. “Training at UF equipped me with the skills to make my dream of moving forward in medicine a reality.”
