Bridget Star's Questionnaire

Bridget Star is a dental surgeon living in Honolulu, Hawaii. After a couple vacations there after her tour of duty, she became deeply enamored with the islands. Hailing from rural New York state, the contrast from home is the draw. She lives in a small bungalow near Wawamalu Beach Park. Her taste in decor is somewhat eclectic, but overall the home is largely a blend of Polynesian and hyper-modern. She doesn't hide the fact that she's well off, but she is generally not ostentatious. She lives relatively close to her private dental practice although she is a bit of a short drive from the hospital where she occasionally uses OR time. 

Bridget makes most of her money performing dental surgery. She also runs a private practice with two other dental providers and an orthodontist. Most of her money goes into her home. Housing is expensive in Hawaii. She travels frequently, both back to the mainland and to east Asia. She also owns a cabin near Aspen, Colorado and is an avid skier. When at home, she often goes surfing and scuba diving. Since she lives alone, she tends to be outside doing something active on her days off. In reality, she works more than she does anything recreational, so most of her money that isn't in assets like real estate is in savings. 

Bridget is extremely, personally, familiar with the limitations of the American healthcare system. Trained as a combat medic in the Army, she learned the limits of the human body. She saw friends suffer in the VA system after returning from Afghanistan. Also, as she is originally from rural Wyoming, she saw how the healthcare system interacts with those in poverty, and she saw her mom die after going bankrupt from chemo treatments. She has been devastated by the complete lack of action of the part of the American government to improve things, and will do anything, even assassinating those most responsible for the failures of for-profit healthcare, to ensure every person in the world has access to free-at-point-of-service, quality healthcare. 

When Bridget was 16 years old, her mother, Casey Lynn, was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. The doctors said it was treatable, but would require chemo and radiation. Bridget's mom was a cashier at Wal Mart and while she had health insurance, it was far from comprehensive, and ultimately coverage for cancer treatment was denied. Her parents had separated almost a decade ago and while her mom did collect Alimony and child support it was a small pittance in light of the cost of medical treatment. Bridget watched as her mom grew sicker and sicker, and eventually was unable to continue to work. The medical bills kept rolling in. Casey Lynn passed away only two years after being diagnosed.

Bridget was devastated. Fortunately she had been able to graduate high school throughout this ordeal, but her grades suffered and college seemed like a pipe-dream, especially with the cost of tuition and little chance for scholarships. One day she was approached by an Army recruiter, and learned about the role of combat medics. She signed the same day. 

Darren Wisemoth - Bridget's former best friend in the Army. Was injured in combat with severe lacerations to his liver and spleen from multiple stab wounds. He was initially stabilized by Bridget on the battlefield, which was resumed by Sean Forest (another combat medic) when Bridget took a glancing bullet to her left eye while treating Darren, but ultimately died in a VA hospital in Baltimore.

Casey Lynn Star - Bridget's mother who died of breast cancer when Bridget was nearly 18 years old. She was a very kind woman, but also prone to severe bouts of depression that made keeping a job incredibly difficult for her. As such, she spent most of her life in poverty. She had 2 brothers, one of whom is still alive, in his early 70s, and is a retired commercial fisherman in Portland, Maine. Casey Lynn had one close friend, but they have also passed away.

Clarissa Gourde - Bridget's current best friend. She is tall, nearly 6" 1', and has red hair. Although she lives in Brooklyn, NYC, she and Bridget text daily and call each other nearly every weekend. They met in Medical School, UConn specifically, and though Clarissa never ended up practicing medicine and actually became a defense attorney, they remained incredibly close. Clarissa is smart and ambitious, just like Bridget, but also more prone to take some time away from work, i.e., take vacations. As such she has been to over 45 countries and speaks 3 languages. 

Bridget's childhood was quite traumatic. As discussed elsewhere, her mom died when she was nearly an adult, but early childhood was awful as well as her father, Robert "Bob" Star, was an alcoholic, and though he was never abusive to Bridget, he had frequent outbursts directed at Casey Lynn, which often included verbal abuse. He and Casey Lynn divorced when Bridget was 8 years old. Bob left Wyoming for Indiana after the divorce and never contacted Bridget or her mom again, but always made his Alimony and Child Support payments. 

Despite her family troubles, Bridget did rather well in school until her mom got cancer. She was an A and B student, but had only a couple close  friends. Nevertheless, the other kids were at least polite towards her, as she didn't really stand out much. Junior year of High School she became more withdrawn, her grades dropped, and she finished her Senior year with a 1.7 GPA. 

Bridget has never had a relationship that lasted longer than 6 months. Her romantic and sexual experiences have exclusively been short term throughout her life. Sometimes they'd break up with her, sometimes she's break up with them, sometimes it was understood to be short term from the start. Regardless, she only felt something she'd call "love" towards two people: Darren Wisemoth and Billie Stroud. Darren was her first love, and that ended tragically. Billie was a resident in the same dental program as her. Their relationship started off purely physical but became more romantic quickly. Bridget ended things shortly after Billie said "I love you" for the first time. She never said it back.