Oklahoma City Bombing Survivor To Become Doctor

A survivor of the Oklahoma City bombing is taking her first steps toward becoming a doctor. 

Madison Naylor said she was a baby at the YMCA day care near the Murrah Building in 1995 when the bomb went off.

“I understood what it meant to be a survivor of the bombing. I knew that there were lots of people who were in a similar situation” Naylor said of her childhood.

Nearly 24 years later, Naylor is training to be a doctor at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.

Naylor's parents were working at OU Health Sciences Center when tragedy struck, so she grew up with stories of her father and other doctors helping in the aftermath.         

“He actually felt like he was trying to find something to do, which I thought was so great, that so many people were just immediately willing to jump in and do their part,” Naylor said.

Even after moving out of state at a young age, Naylor knew she wanted to be a doctor in Oklahoma.            

“I interviewed here, and I was with my mother and we drove past the YMCA, the one that was rebuilt where I went to kindergarten, I just burst into tears. It felt like home,” Naylor said.

Naylor is now learning from doctors who responded to the bombing and saved lives like hers. She said she looks forward to having patients of her own.

“I can’t wait to be that person that they've known me for years and we can interact, and I've changed their life and they've changed mine,” Naylor said.