Gone too soon: Honoring a WWAMI student's life

 

A few weeks before he died, Xavier Engle, with a big grin on his face, told his life partner he was ready to accept and commit to the fact that he was going to be a surgeon.

"He had tried to keep an open mind," said his partner, Kaitlyn Kennedy, a student in Idaho's WWAMI program. "Up until that point [he] treated every rotation like he might end up going into that field, with surgery always in the back of his mind. But after doing his surgery rotation, that was that. He loved surgery. He wanted to be a trauma surgeon, spend some time in Alaska, work for Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors Without Borders), continue working part time abroad."

Xavier, who expected to graduate from the Alaska WWAMI Class of 2016, wanted someday to move back to his hometown of Anchorage to work for and contribute to the same neighborhood health center where his mother, physician assistant Pamela Engle, worked.

"He loved the WWAMI program," Kaitlyn said. "He thought being in med school was just the coolest thing and he was constantly saying how excited he was to 'grow up and be a real doctor.' He was inspired by our teachers and mentors and felt very fortunate to be a part of such a wonderful program."

In November 2014, Xavier was living in the Seattle area during his third year in the University of Washington program that enables aspiring medical students from Alaska to launch their education in state.

On the last Sunday of the month, Xavier and two of his friends steered kayaks into the south fork of the Stillaguamish River. The river drops through Class V rapids in Robe Canyon, a place where Xavier-a highly accomplished kayaker-and his friends had paddled dozens of times.

This time, Xavier's kayak flipped on the first drop, starting a chain of events that ended in tragedy. He was 27.

The accident report described not only what occurred that chilly Sunday, but-unusual in accident reports-described Xavier as well.

"Engle was known for not only his world-class kayaking skills, but also for his varied academic and medical pursuits, his humility and care for the less fortunate, and his intense zest for life. Engle touched deeply the lives of many who knew him."

'The obsession began at that moment'

Xavier was born in Santa Fe, N.M., and adopted at birth by a single parent, Pamela Engle, who worked for many years as a physician assistant in a community health center in Anchorage.

"Parenting this child was the most meaningful thing in my life," she said.

Xavier was "intense, joyous, willful, beautiful, very intense, with a radiant smile and joy of life," his mother said. He began reading at 3, learned to play the piano at 4, was deemed "gifted" at 5 and placed in special classes with the public school system.

"He had so much fun at day care that he cried every time I picked him up!" his mother said.

Despite being an avid reader who devoured books-Redwall was an early favorite-Xavier wasn't initially a highly motivated student.

An aptitude for science appeared when Xavier won the fifth-grade science fair with a project on bird flu. "That included going to sample chicken and goose poop, sent to the state lab for culture, as well as local CDC scientists," his mother said.

Engle and her son traveled to Mexico and Hawaii in the winter and took many long family vacations in the summer, on the Yukon, Forty Mile, Matanuska and Kenai rivers. "Our lives were often filled with river adventures," Engle said.

Xavier was 12 when they went on a whitewater raft trip along with two kayakers.

"Xavier complained that the kayakers were having a lot more fun, while he was cold and stuck in the raft with the grownups," she said. "The obsession began at that moment and never ended."

Xavier acquired an old boat, took classes at the local pools and paddled around Goose Lake and the Kenai River. On his first trip on Eagle River with two adults who were competent kayakers, he dislocated his shoulder and spent several months immobilized. That setback didn't stop him, however.

Throughout his early teens, Xavier was a stellar student, jazz pianist and an excellent clarinetist in the Youth Symphony. "But his passion to get on the river was supreme," his mother said.

"My goal as a parent was to develop his independent life and not break his bright spirit and sense of adventure," his mother said. "Xavier schemed to raise money so he could go to a private kayaking high school in Montana. He worked at REI and a local kayaking shop and was enamored by this passion."

Xavier took some online and UAA courses so he could finish high school early. He researched and planned a solo trip to a language school in Chile, in the heart of whitewater river country, saved up the money and announced he was going, with or without his mother's blessing.

Xavier spent three weeks in Pucón and a language school and then took off with a group of Irish boaters. During the next few years, he traveled, paddled and worked in Peru, Uganda and Russia.

He reluctantly wrote college entrance applications, his mother said, and was offered scholarships at Harvard and other schools. Only one college interested him-Dartmouth.

"Our good friend Janice Tower told him they had a boating club and that was his only choice," his mother said. He received a scholarship from the alumni group at Dartmouth.

"The faculty members saw the potential and dragged it out of him," she said. "He continued his river adventures and passions there, and he turned out to know he was academically strong and capable of higher learning in most areas there."

Xavier attended the London School of Economics and excelled in the sciences. He also worked at Hitchcock Hospital in a research lab that worked on inspiring nanoparticle research in cancer.

After graduation, he accepted a fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control in the virology lab in Fort Collins, Colo., where he met and fell in love with Kaitlyn Kennedy.

The couple decided to attend medical school through the WWAMI program.

"They traveled and studied together and had plans to work in the world as physicians," she said. "They went to Cambodia on a medical program and aimed at adding a master's degree in global health."

'Xavi was loved by so many people'

Xavier spent his first WWAMI year in Anchorage, where he was able to start the medical journey, ski, kayak, spend time with his mother and excel in school.

"Xavier had an unbelievable ability to pack his days completely full and yet still do everything, including school, extremely well," Kaitlyn said.

He moved to Seattle for his second and third years in WWAMI.

"He loved being in the clinic, hospital and O.R., working with patients and building his medical knowledge," she said. "He was so eager to learn and he soaked up everything he could. Xavi was loved by so many people because he was humble and kind. He never let his unbelievable talent and intelligence get in the way of treating people well."

At the celebration of Xavier's life, she said, all the groups involved in his life came together.

"And many people commented on the fact that they had no idea he was so amazing at so many things," Kaitlyn said. "His kayaker friends talked about his skills on the water and his friendship, his medical school classmates and faculty talked about his intelligence and connection with his patients, and his family talked about his compassion and good heart. Xavi's gift was the way he easily excelled yet made everyone feel comfortable and appreciated in his presence."

His fellow medical students, both in Seattle and Anchorage, proposed the WWAMI scholarship award.

Dr. Jane Shelby, Alaska WWAMI's assistant dean of the foundation phase, worked closely with Xavier's mother and Dr. Tom Nighswander, Alaska WWAMI's assistant clinical dean, to establish an academic tribute, which they named the Xavier Engle Spirit Award.

"It was established to recognize exceptional students in the Alaska WWAMI program, those who exhibit academic excellence and also excel in other areas of life," Shelby said.

An inspiring memory

The first WWAMI student tapped to receive the new award was Adinda Demske, who grew up in Soldotna and started in the WWAMI program in August 2014.

"As an Alaskan, I've been interested in the program since learning about it-it is Alaska's medical school," Adinda said. "I am thankful it exists."

The WWAMI director and clinical medicine course chair, in April, described two special Alaska WWAMI awards to Adinda's class in April: The Jon B. Syren Award and the Xavier Engle Spirit Award. Both awards remember third-year Alaska WWAMI medical students who died at the age of 27.

Adinda says the name of the award captures its meaning for her.

"Xavier was clearly talented, motivated, and accomplished," she said. "While those traits are impressive, it was how he went about life that is especially admirable...his spirit and "joy of life" are characteristics to remember and honor, aspirations for me moving forward, even when we have to move forward without those whose lives ended much too soon."

For more information and how to donate, contact Maryann Kniffen in the Alaska WWAMI office: (907) 786-4794 or mikniffen@uaa.alaska.edu.

A donation form (PDF) may be downloaded here.

Written by Tracy Kalytiak, UAA Office of University Advancement