100 Moments

10:10 10.10: Anatomy of a Moment

Cleveland Clinic Willoughby Hills Family Health Center

Willoughby Hills, Ohio
7:10 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time

Olivia Noall, MD, is a third-year resident. She just saw a patient whose anemia is showing improvement. Next, she has a follow-up visit with a patient to discuss management of diabetes and blood pressure. In between, she pauses to fire off some paperwork. 

Do you believe in destiny? You might, if you were to retrace the steps in Dr. Noall’s journey to date. 

Her own mother is a retired family medicine physician. When Dr. Noall was just 3 months old, Mom — then a medical resident herself — had open-heart surgery that saved her life. Dr. Noall went on to work as a medical receptionist in her mother’s office. When Dr. Noall was in college, Mom needed a second open-heart surgery. The swift recovery that followed crystallized Dr. Noall’s own decision to pursue medicine and follow her own path in cardiology. 

Earlier during her residency, one case made a lasting impression. When she helped a patient with peripartum cardiomyopathy (a rare weakening of the heart muscle) successfully carry her pregnancy to term, she knew she had found her calling. “I want to have the same kind of impact on other people’s lives,” Dr. Noall says, “that I’ve seen in my own life.” 

Photograph by James Douglas