April 9, 2019

Twins separated by medical school will reunite as interns this summer

Internal Medicine patients in Chicago may be seeing double soon, but not because their vision is impaired.

The Gold Twins
Twins Daniel, left and above right, and Matthew Gold both matched at an Internal Medicine residency in Chicago. 

Twin brothers Daniel and Matthew Gold will reunite at the University of Chicago this summer after spending the last four years apart at different medical schools.

Daniel will graduate from the Wayne State University School of Medicine on June 4. His brother will graduate from Duke University School Medicine on May 10.

The twins were born in Southfield, Mich., and grew up Bloomfield Hills. They both received undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan before separating to attend medical school.

This July they will reunite, both as Internal Medicine interns. They found out they had matched into the Chicago program March 14, national Match Day for graduating medical residents. Daniel’s fiancée, Viviana Pernot, and mother, Linda Gold, M.D., attended Wayne’s Match Day in Detroit, while their father, Ken Gold, attended Match Day in Durham, N.C., with Matthew.

“I ended up matching at my No. 2, the University of Chicago,” Daniel said. “When I was at my interview there, I interviewed with the head program director and mentioned that I had a twin brother who was also applying in Internal Medicine from Duke. He was very interested, and by the time I had left Chicago my twin brother had an interview there. He interviewed there a few days after me and ended up ranking it No. 1, and matched there as well. We are now two incoming interns in a class of 30.”

The road to Chicago almost didn’t happen.

“I had a little bit of a wild ride. I was a Dermatology applicant and did five Derm rotations. Before submitting my application, I last minute dual-applied with Internal Medicine because I was not 100 percent sure that Dermatology was for me. After 13 Dermatology interviews and three Internal Medicine interviews, I decided to rank my IM interviews above my Dermatology ones, very much hoping to get one of those three,” Daniel said. “My day was set up to be a very big surprise for wherever I matched.”

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