From the US Navy, to Broadway, to Wisconsin; MCW graduate shares life journey

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) - Another generation of Medical College of Wisconsin doctors walked the stage this summer for graduation.

Among the graduates is Cam Collins, who will begin his residency at the beginning of July.

“I’ve made such a good group of friends that I think will be friends until I die,” Collins said. “I love this place, MCW’s been amazing.”

For Collins, it’s not the start of his career, it’s just another step in what’s been a long and decorated career.

“I’m much older than my counterparts at school here,” Collins said. "I feel like now I’m going to school in the internet age.”

Collins’ first passion was music, which he fell in love with at a young age, growing up in Indiana.

“I don’t know what it was, but I was just really obsessed with music early,” Collins said. “I started at 4 years old, I was a violin soloist as a kid.”

His career started early, playing professionally throughout high school and college before he worked at Disney.

Quickly after beginning his career, Collins was recruited to play in the Next Jazz Ensemble for the US Navy.

“I actually got called by the navy to come fly out and audition which was really random,” Collins said. “My parents were like you’re taking my son into the navy?”

Collins spent 8 years in the Navy, playing for US Presidents, Prime Ministers, and more.

“History was literally just happening all around me,” Collins said. “The luckiest chain of events maybe ever that got me on the East Coast and inched me towards moving to New York.”

When he had enough money and was ready to move on, dreams came to reality and he made the move to New York.

Collins played on Broadway and was part of the music scene in the city.

“While I was in the Navy it was sort of like learning how to be an adult and stand on my own but then in New York it was really about learning to be the best player I could be,” Collins said.

While on the road for a musical a worst nightmare for a woodwind player happened.

“I felt this pop in my throat, and I had herniated my pharynx,” Collins said. “I couldn’t speak for almost a year.”

Collins was never going to be able to play the same again, and traveled across the country looking for a cure, which led him to Vanderbilt University.

“I was kind of a medical curiosity there and I got to play saxophone with a scope down my nose so they could actually see what’s going on,” Collins said.

A doctor at the University happened to invent the exact surgery that was needed for Collins to get his voice back.

“Randomly this guy from near Chicago moved down to this Vanderbilt practice like that week and his research was in what was going on with me,” Collins said.

Collins got back into the music world, from a behind the scenes perspective, and even got nominated for a Grammy as a producer and director.

Behind the scenes did not last long, inspired by finding a medical cure for his throat injury, Collins made the decision to attend medical school, which brought him to the Medical College of Wisconsin.

“It never occurred to me that physicians can be artists,” Collins said. “Got to the wards and started doing my rotations and definitely confirmed that I wanted to be here and it was the right choice.”

Now Collins will be starting his residency this summer and is ready for the next chapter of his life, which he says will be the last.

“It’s about supporting your patients spiritually and emotionally and medically and it’s about making sure the world is a better place,” Collins said.