Drs. Travan and Travis Jasper assumed co-director roles at Chippenham Hospital's emergency department in April, returning to the Richmond neighborhood where they grew up without running water.
At 12, the twins witnessed their uncle hospitalized for liver failure related to alcoholism. The attending physician's dismissal of the patient—telling the boys their uncle deserved his condition—sparked a turning point. "We discussed it out in the hallway and made a vow to become doctors," Travan Jasper said.
The twins graduated high school as co-valedictorians, attended Stanford University for undergraduate studies, and earned medical degrees from the University of Chicago. Now they distinguish themselves at work by wearing different colored scrubs—green and purple—so colleagues and patients can tell them apart.
"We were hungry, hungry literally and hungry for success," Travan Jasper said of their childhood. "Because for us, that was the only way we were going to get out."
Travis Jasper credited their hardship with shaping their approach to medicine. "All of the stuff that we went through, all of the negative days, made us who we are now," he said.
