By David L. Snelling

Miami – Growing up in Jamaica, becoming a doctor in the United States seemed like a pipe dream for Kerry-Ann Mitchell.

Despite excelling in high school, her family was financially-strapped and couldn’t afford to send her to school in America.

But that didn’t stop Mitchell who decided to make it on her own, and after working several jobs as a waitress and clerk to earn money for school, her dream became well-founded.

She is now called Dr. Kerry-Ann Mitchell, a neuroplastic surgeon scientist at Ohio State University.

The Jamaican immigrant specializes in rebuilding the delicate anatomy of damaged skulls.

This surgery, known as a cranioplasty,

corrects the shape of the skull and lasts between two to four hours

Mitchell said she makes an incision along the skull allowing her to insert a precisely shaped clear, synthetic implant to fit the space of the missing bone. She said the effects are life-changing for patients.

“Regardless of a patient’s disease or diagnosis, I want to help make their quality of life better,” she said in an Ohio State Health and Discovery research on cranioplasty.

Mitchell said the specialty of neuroplastic surgery marries neurosurgery with plastic surgery to restore the appearance and function of patients who have survived invasive operations and treatments from conditions including brain cancer, traumatic brain injuries or strokes.

“There’s only five neuroplastic programs in the entire country, and only three of those treat civilian populations,” she said. “We have developed expertise for particularly complex patients.”

It was a long road to reach her dream career, she said. She had to finish four years of college, four years of graduate school, four years of medical school and six years for residency.

Then, she had to pass the difficult American Board of Plastic Surgery Written Exam.

“You can’t even imagine the tremendous relief and pride and happiness going through me right now,” she said in a social media post. “I can’t even begin to tell you the blood, sweat, tears and sacrifices that have gotten me to this point.”

Mitchell’s family has deep roots in Jamaica. Born and raised in Gibraltar in St. Ann, Jamaica, Mitchell was the daughter of a housewife and an auto body repairman. While attending high school, she saved money for college by working as a waitress at BiBiBips Bar and Grill in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

“Every morning, I would wake up at 5 a.m., walk almost a mile to catch the bus from Gibraltar to Moneague, then another one to Ocho Rios, and an hour and a half later be at work by 7:30 a.m,” she said.

Mitchell later worked as a clerk for a local construction company owned by businessman Andy Chin.

She said she arrived in the United States in 2021 with $300 to her name and an academic scholarship, to earn a medical degree from Stanford University and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Utah.

She went on to complete a neuroplastic surgery fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.

Mitchell said a cancer-stricken elderly man piqued her interest in plastic surgery. She said the cancer covered his face and left him disfigured.

Mitchells said the reconstructive plastic surgeon performed a high-risk operation which allowed him to have a face again, even if he has less time to live.

“I vividly remember the case that made me want to become a plastic surgeon,” she said. ‘Even if he has only six months or a year to live, he probably wants to have a face while he’s alive.”

Now a mother of two and an accomplished surgeon, Mitchell has received accolades such as the American Medical Association Outstanding Scholar Award and the Benedict College Board of Trustees Award.