For Shay Taylor, Yale New Haven Hospital is no longer the place where she cleaned floors. It is where she is heading back as a doctor.
Taylor, 32, is from New Haven, Connecticut. At 18, after graduating from Wilbur Cross High School in 2010, she went straight to work as a janitor at Yale New Haven Hospital. She cleaned patient rooms, offices and psychiatric units.
She had done well in school, finishing in the top 10 percent of her class. But she did not have family guidance on college or financial aid, so she started working instead.
A turning point came after her mother suffered severe lung damage in a house fire. Doctors repeatedly dismissed her mother’s symptoms as psychological. Taylor, frustrated by what was happening, contacted the hospital’s chief executive and explained her mother’s struggles.
Within days, her mother was connected to a new medical team. She was then diagnosed with vocal cord dysfunction, a rare condition that had previously been overlooked.
According to Today, that experience pushed Taylor toward patient advocacy. She looked into nursing and other healthcare jobs before deciding she wanted to become a doctor.
She went back to school and attended Southern Connecticut State University. She later earned a master’s degree at Quinnipiac University. During that time, she kept working nights as a janitor so she could save money for medical school applications and the MCAT exam.
Taylor was eventually accepted to Howard University College of Medicine. This month, she matched for residency at Yale New Haven Hospital, returning to the same hospital where she once worked cleaning floors.
Her reaction was captured on video and later went viral. In the video, she screamed, jumped and collapsed into the arms of loved ones after learning where she had matched.
“I would have never imagined this,” she said to Today. “To come back to the same place, it means everything.”
Taylor is returning to Yale New Haven Hospital as an anesthesiology resident. She says she wants her story to help people who are unsure about their path.
“I want them to keep going,” she told Today. “I want them to not take a no as the final answer.”
