THYROID COCOON | Victoria Yuan

“Disease and its management can have an enduring resonance in the lives of patients and their loved ones. This concept has been most poignant to me in the setting of thyroid disease. When I was a child, my mother was transformed physically and emotionally by Graves' disease — and later its treatment. I understood the thyroid as a butterfly gland, an organ that brings about metamorphosis the way a cocoon unravels into a butterfly. Throughout my rotations, I learned from patients how thyroid cancer, autoimmune disease, Synthroid, goiter, thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine, have all transformed their health and their lives. Here, the thyroid is depicted as a cocoon, inspired by the patients whose stories have been shaped by their thyroid.”

Victoria Yuan (she/her) is a third-year medical student and Sarnoff Fellow at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. She graduated from Stanford University, where she majored in biomedical computation, minored in classics, and produced podcasts with the Stanford Storytelling Project. With interests in data science and art, Yuan is drawn to the numbers and narratives of medicine, lending context and color to statistics through patient stories.