Four Countries. One Calling

Roddy Bascaro

College 2008-2015

Roddy Bascaro left DESS College and flew to Rome to study medicine in English while simultaneously learning Italian. Just like any other Guatemalan teenager trying to become a doctor!

The plan was straightforward enough: six years of medical school, get fluent in Italian by year four, graduate, save lives. Simple.

Then COVID-19 hit Italy first, and simple went out the window.

The Early Days: Rome, English, Italian, and a Pandemic

Most students worry about passing exams. Roddy had to pass them while learning an entirely new language on the side. By fourth year, he needed to be fluent enough to interact confidently with patients. Now that's real pressure.

He made it work. But then 2020 arrived, and he found himself watching hospitals buckle under COVID's weight. Not from the news. From inside.

"Eye-opening doesn't even begin to cover it," he says now.

He graduated in 2021, writing and then presenting a thesis on alternative interventions for aortic valve replacements to a panel of experts.

Graduation should have been a moment to exhale. Instead, Roddy packed his bags and headed to the UK.

The NHS Deep End: Darlington, Respiratory Wards, Pandemic Chaos

He joined the NHS Foundation Programme in Darlington, a town in the North East that most people have heard of but that many might struggle to place on a map. He started on the respiratory wards in the middle of the pandemic, as a newly qualified doctor in a new country with new systems and new guidelines.

"It was a very steep learning curve, to say the least."

But steep curves tend to teach you fast. While navigating all of that, Roddy still managed to present an audit on the management of early-onset colorectal cancer at two international conferences. He also created a teaching series for newly qualified doctors on recognising clinical emergencies in surgical patients. That resource is still in use at the hospital.

Edinburgh: Where Things Got Serious

After his foundation years, Roddy moved to Edinburgh and became a Clinical Fellow in the Emergency Department at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, a tertiary centre (aka the place where the really complicated cases end up).

Gunshot wounds. Stab wounds. Car accidents. Stroke calls. Every acute emergency you can imagine, and a few you probably can't.

"It was full-on and formative."

This is where Roddy went from competent to confident. From following protocols to making calls. From assisting to leading. Edinburgh didn't just test his medical knowledge, it tested his nerve. And he passed.

Australia: Because Why Stop Now?

After Edinburgh, most people would settle, and maybe take a breath. Perhaps find a nice consultant post somewhere familiar.

But Roddy moved to Australia!

First stop: Brisbane, where he worked as a General Surgical Registrar for a year. When he was on call, he was the first point of contact for the entire hospital and local GPs for anyone needing urgent surgical assessment or intervention.

That meant making decisions. Who needs surgery now? Who gets admitted? Who can wait for a clinic appointment? He scrubbed into surgeries regularly. He performed several on his own: incision and drainage of abscesses, appendectomies, assisting with bowel resections.

It was high-stakes, high-responsibility work. The kind that either breaks you or builds you into someone unshakeable.

Then he decided to locum around Australia.

Rural Medicine: The Deep End, Revisited

Roddy worked in several 'country' hospitals, treating large Aboriginal communities and navigating the unique challenges of remote medicine. Air retrievals became part of the job. Managing fractures solo and dealing with heart-wrenching cases of domestic violence that you carry home with you whether you want to or not.

"It's a different kind of medicine out there," he says. "You don't have backup five minutes away. You're it."

Rural work taught him something urban hospitals can't: how to make do. How to trust your instincts when the textbook answer isn't available. How to hold your ground when things go sideways and there's no one else to call.

The Next Move: Canada

As of now, Roddy is preparing residency applications for General Surgery and General Practice in Canada. He and his partner are planning to finally put down some roots.

Four countries. Three healthcare systems. Two specialties under consideration. One very winding road from DESS College to wherever he ends up next.

What the Journey Teaches

Roddy's story isn't about finding yourself. It's about building yourself, bit by bit, across continents and contexts and crises.

He didn't start out confident. He started out curious. And willing. Willing to move to a country where he didn't speak the language, walk into a pandemic-hit respiratory ward as a junior doctor, take on emergency cases that would make most people freeze, keep moving, keep learning, and above all, keep testing his limits.

There's no single moment where he 'arrived.' Just a series of decisions to show up, adapt, and push forward.

From Rome to Darlington to Edinburgh to Brisbane to the Australian outback. From learning Italian to leading surgeries. From thesis defences to domestic violence cases in the middle of nowhere.

It's not the path you'd draw on a careers plan. But it's the path that works when you're more interested in what you can learn than where you'll land.

Roddy doesn't know yet where his career will settle. But he's already proved something more important: that he can handle whatever comes next. Wherever that happens to be.