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Fort Valley native, healthcare worker shows pride for hometown

As COVID-19 cases surge across the state, we're continuing to highlight healthcare workers on the frontlines. One of them is a proud Fort Valley native.

MACON, Ga. — They say home is where the heart is, and the same rings true for Bradley Carthon. Carthon is a Fort Valley native who now has a leadership role at a hospital in Atlanta.

"We have so many people who went to public high school, you know same school for 12 years, and they've done wonderful things," he said.

For Carthon, Peach County High School was just the start of his career.

"I remember being about 13 or 14 knowing that I wanted to do medicine, and speaking of that place, professors at the college would actually let us high schoolers go with the students," he said.

Carthon graduated in the Trojans class of 1992 and went on to Hampton University for undergrad. After getting an MD and PhD from Harvard University, an oncology job in Texas and other stops along the way, he says it was time for him to come home to Georgia.

"It's just a place where I connect with people, I connect with a lot of folks about their hometowns, understanding some of the challenges," Carthon said.

Since 2011, Carthon has been in Atlanta. He says whenever he has a chance, he brings his two kids back to Fort Valley to show them where he grew up.

Carthon currently works at the Winship at Midtown Hospital, which is part of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. Last month, he was promoted to the chief of service of hematology and medical oncology.

"As the service chief, my job is to really be a servant for my colleagues, and what that means is to make sure they have the best opportunity to serve the patients, to do that safely and to do that well," he said.

He will still see his oncology patients while in the administrative role.

Carthon says COVID-19 has placed restrictions on hospital everywhere, but they're navigating it all one day at a time.

"This is a challenging time for most healthcare providers, anybody who's in contact with trying to keep people safe and healthy. And the thing that's more challenging is cancer doesn't really care if there's a pandemic or not," Carthon said.

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