JTCH Board sends student to conference

May 23, 2025

A Green County teen is on his way to a prestigious learning experience this summer, thanks to the sponsorship of Jane Todd Crawford Hospital.

Robert Paxton Bloyd, 16, will be attending the Congress of Future Medical Leaders in Boston as he looks to pursue an advanced diploma for a future career in medicine.

“I am very honored to have been selected for this prestigious program,” Bloyd told the Jane Todd Crawford Hospital’s Board of Directors in a letter. “This program is highly selective and honors academically superior high school students dedicated to the service of humanity through medicine.”

Bloyd just completed his freshman year at Green County High School, where he was enrolled in several advanced classes and maintained a 4.0 GPA. The son of Jamie Ennis and Chesley Bloyd of Green County, Bloyd aspires to become a radiologist.

At the Congress of Future Medical Leaders, Bloyd said he will be given the opportunity to be able to meet Nobel Prize winning scientists in medicine, former U.S. Surgeons General, Olympic team physicians, oncologists, and Deans of elite medical schools such as Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth and Georgetown universities.

“We will be learning about the latest in cutting-edge innovations in medical technology like 3-D printing of body parts, artificial body parts, limb regeneration, tissue engineering, bionic body parts, and real time brain imaging,” he wrote. “We will also get to observe surgeries.”

Even at 16, Bloyd is quite familiar with surgeries. As a 5-year-old, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Burkitt’s Lymphoma Leukemia. He endured multiple surgeries, eight rounds of high dose chemotherapy, more than 50 blood transfusions, and spent most of a year as an inpatient at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Bloyd is now a 10-year childhood cancer survivor.

In his letter to the JTCH Board, Bloyd requested assistance with the $1,285 tuition cost of the program, which the board agreed to fund.

“Anytime we can assist a bright up-and-coming student in our community who wishes to excel in the medical field, we will most certainly consider it,” said Ruthie Shuffett, board chairperson.

Rusty Tungate, CEO/Administrator at Jane Todd Crawford Hospital, presented Bloyd with the check on behalf of the board at a meeting on May 20.

“We hope Paxton enjoys his experience at the Congress of Future Medical Leaders, and who knows, maybe he’ll return here to Jane Todd some day and serve the people in Green County,” Tungate said.