Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter

Doctor Mercedes Dullum. - Contributed

At the age of 11, Mercedes Dullum knew she wanted to be a doctor. Forty-two years later, she has more than fulfilled that dream.

And Dr. Dullum has risen to the top in her career of choice.

At present, Dr. Dullum is a specialist in cardiothoracic surgery and is based at the Cleveland Clinic in Florida.

She was voted Washington's Top Cardiac Surgeon by Washington Magazine. In 2005, she was named Physician of the Year by the South Florida Business Journal.

On November 3, Dr. Dullum received the Jamaica Committee's 2007 Award of Excellence at the Pineapple Ball held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.

"It's an incredible honour that they would even consider me, it's a wonderful foundation and I am just really honoured," a humble Dr. Dullum told Flair. As part of the award ceremony, a scholarship was established in her name.

A former student of Montego Bay High School, Dr. Dullum said her love for medicine developed during her youth because she was always taking care of family members.

"Growing up in Jamaica, everybody lives with you, your whole family, so I grew up taking care of my grandparents and anybody who was sick in the family," Dr. Dullum told Flair.

Patchwork

"My brothers and my father used to race go-carts and I went along and patched them up whenever they were injured and I always enjoyed that."

Initially, she did not know she wanted to be a cardiac surgeon; she had thought she would be an internist in Jamaica, but after enrolling in college in the United States, she got experience in surgery and fell in love with it. Later at medical school, she continued on that path and then branched off into cardiac surgery.

She credits her success to the education she received in Jamaica. "The schooling is very hard and very structured. Here I was doing A'Levels and O'Levels and it put me in good stead to go on in the United States.

"Going to school in Jamaica gives you a great education and you learn hard work too and that's what it takes (to be successful)."

She was 21 when she achieved the B.Sc. in applied biology before moving on to do medicine and eventually surgery. She has written 21 scientific papers on cardiac surgery. Dr. Dullum is a pioneer in the revolutionary 'off-pump' method of minimally invasive cardiac surgery.