From “One Piece” to One Patient at a Time
May 7, 2026
As a seven year old, Christopher Wilks became an anime super fan. Immersed in the stories told through Japanese animation, he was able to escape to a world of adventure alongside true companions searching for treasure. Letting his imagination run wild with the main character Monkey D. Luffy in the long-running series “One Piece,” Christopher developed a fandom he still holds today. It’s a storyline he couldn’t have known would help him along his own journey through medical school. 
The son of a cardiologist, Christopher thrived in his health and medicine (H&M) elective magnet program at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor. From sophomore through senior year, he and his classmates were exposed to the principles of biomedical science, the fields of medicine, how the body works to maintain homeostasis, and innovations that have improved life for people with chronic conditions.
“My classmates and I all ordered H&M scrubs to celebrate our graduation when we were seniors, and I regularly wear these on shifts in the emergency department today,” said Christopher.
With a future in medicine in sight, but not quite focused, Christopher headed to college at Princeton University where he studied chemistry and considered pursuing a PhD.
“As interesting as my work was, I felt as though I was too far removed from the people I wanted to eventually help.”
Med Serve NC, a medical service fellowship through AmeriCorps, allowed Christopher to connect with people in a way he’d been missing. As a medical assistant and community health worker during the pandemic, Christopher administered COVID tests and eventually vaccines in mass community events in and around Wilmington, North Carolina. Working at the federally qualified health center (FQHC) during one of the most contentious times in modern medicine, Christopher met and heard from many patients who didn’t have insurance and were accustomed to having difficult and negative experiences with healthcare.
“Working at MedNorth gave me a front-row view to many of the inequities present within healthcare,” said Christopher. “Working to level this playing field became another driving factor for why I wanted to pursue a career in medicine.”
During his undergraduate years in New Jersey, Christopher worked closely with incarcerated individuals, leading classes on resume building, job searches after release, and interview skills. It deepened his commitment to building meaningful relationships—something he recognized as essential to both patient care and his own long-term fulfillment in medicine. Those experiences led him to the College of Human Medicine where the mission emphasizes dignity, inclusion, and care for medically underserved communities.
“This work offered a different satisfaction than the one I found in my research and it was something that I knew was paramount to my happiness and satisfaction with my career down the line.”
He took that aspect of happiness in life seriously when he was accepted into the Research to Reduce Disparities in Disease (R2D2), a program designed to train medical students to become clinical researchers. A book he was reading called Flow by Hungarian American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi inspired him to study what experiences make life genuinely satisfying. His bold proposal relied heavily on psychology and sociology, two subjects he hadn’t studied in-depth before.
“For so much of this project, I felt like I was fumbling around in the dark. Looking back on it, I just took it one step at a time, I asked for help when I needed it, and I did my best to educate myself and broaden my understanding of the topic I wanted to learn more about.”
The experience drew him closer yet again to the human psyche and brought him back to his research roots.
Christopher’s passion for connecting with others continued through his time in the Leadership in Medicine for the Underserved program (now called Leadership in Community and Public Health) in Flint. Living in the city’s historic Carriage Town District, he formed a friendship with Jeni Godlesky, the librarian at Hurley Hospital. She introduced him to a local storytelling event at a nearby wine bar. 
“At every event I attended, I shared a story, and this helped my neighbors learn more about me and through them, I was able to learn more about Flint and the people who live here. I feel a part of the community.”
The human connection was front and center for Christopher as he prepared to perform an endotracheal intubation during his fourth year of medical school. He was anxious as he attempted the procedure for the seventh time, this time alongside a respiratory therapist from Henry Ford Health. As she reached to hand him the Ambu bag, Christopher noticed something that had been close to his heart since childhood. His partner in this challenging procedure had a tattoo sleeve of his old friend Monkey D. Luffy, the main character from his favorite anime series “One Piece.”
“It brightened my spirits to see a familiar face, especially in such an intense situation,” said Christopher. “I told her I loved her tattoo, and we briefly spoke about it before it was time for me to start intubating. Seeing her tattoo relaxed me to the point where I thought only about what I needed to do to get the tube into my patient’s trachea, and I got it there.”
The connection over the beloved anime character and the success of the procedure had the respiratory therapist and Christopher both exclaiming the phrase that’s become known to all fans of the series “The One Piece is real!”
Christopher will have plenty of time to nurture his new friendship with the anime-loving respiratory therapist as he begins his residency in emergency medicine at Henry Ford Health in Detroit this summer. For a medical student who has based his work on relationships, the transient nature of patients in the ED will be his next medical journey challenge.
“As I trade longitudinal relationships for seeing vast numbers of patients over the years, I resolve to do my best to make every interaction meaningful,” said Christopher. “I will ask patients about their concerns and their fears, listen to them, and do my best to make them feel seen in the ED. I feel as though my potential for growth is limitless."
By Emily Linnert
