Hannah Ray was about 9 years old when she was first exposed to the medical field.
The newest addition to South Sunflower County Hospital’s team of physicians will tell you that it wasn’t typical medicine.
Ray, whose parents served in international mission work from the time she was 6 years old, was raised in the Ukraine, a former Eastern Block country that borders Russia.
“During my childhood, we did a lot of different kinds of projects, clinics and outreaches, and some of those projects were medical clinics, and we were the free help. I was 9 years old, working the pharmacy,” Ray said
As she got older, Ray had experience in multiple areas of medicine, including optometry.
“When I got into high school, I was very interested in science,” Ray said. “When some of the doctors came, my dad had me shadow some of them. I really enjoyed seeing the way they could talk to people and figure their problems and also the way people were comfortable talking to them and how they felt that emotional support too.”
Ray would leave the Ukraine to come back to the States to attend college.
She received her undergraduate degree from Louisiana Tech University, and she attended medical school at LSU-New Orleans.
Ray did visit her parents overseas, though, and she found herself back in the Ukraine when Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down, killing 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board.
Her parents lived about three hours from where the disaster occurred, and all flights in the area were grounded.
“The hardest part was when it was time to leave and I had to get back to the States,” she said. “Because I was still in medical school at the time, and I had one of those big board exams that you schedule months in advance. It was like a week away, and I couldn’t get out of the country.”
With no planes flying in or out, Ray was forced to travel to the other side of the country by train in order to get a flight out.
“It all worked out just fine, but it was an interesting experience,” Ray said.
Ray would eventually begin a family medicine residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
That is where she got her first exposure to Indianola.
“Part of my curriculum when I started was to come up here and do a month with the doctors up here,” Ray said.
She had an instant connection with the doctors and the community.
“I asked to come back for an elective rotation during my second year,” she said.
While Ray left the international mission world behind, she sees her practice in Indianola as a continuation of her mission work as a child.
“To me, medicine is about going where people need you,” Ray said. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being in a big city. We need doctors there too, but I just had that desire to go to an area where maybe people did not have as much access.”
Ray said that she chose Indianola ultimately because she believes this is the best place for her to grow as a doctor and learn new skills, but she also has a passion for connecting with patients the way she witnessed growing up in Europe.
“I would really just like the opportunity to connect with people and provide more education to people,” Ray said. “Patients are very capable of making changes if they have the knowledge to do so. I love teaching patients what’s going on and why we need to take these medicines and why we need to eat this diet…It’s not just, the doctor said so.”
Since 2015, Ray’s parents have returned to the States and live in the Jackson area near her sister, Rebecca, and her husband.
“We haven’t been on the same continent for nine years, so it’s nice to have them down the road,” Ray said.
