At 21, Deakin University student Anna Dang has set her sights on a medical first for Australia. She wants to become the nation’s first blind doctor, a goal shaped by two life-threatening chapters in her own story.

Dang says the profession that saved her is the one she hopes to enter. Her determination grew from the care she received after doctors twice pulled her through critical moments.

What keeps her moving toward that goal, she says, is the same quality others often criticise.

“I’m very stubborn,” Dang told 7 News. “Very, very stubborn. And I’ve been told by so many people that I’m dogmatic.”

Dang was born in Vietnam alongside her twin sister. Both girls were blind, and both arrived four months premature.

“I was given a one per cent chance of survival,” she said.

Her family relocated to Australia when she was four. Later, as a teenager, Dang experienced anorexia and then developed an infection so serious that her mother was warned to expect the worst.

“You might have to prepare to say goodbye,” Dang recalled her being told.

She survived, and the doctors who treated her became the inspiration behind her future plans.

“I guess I just want to give back to the field that has allowed me to live such an incredible life,” Dang said.

Dang is currently enrolled in biomedical science, which she is using as her route toward medicine.

“Someone has to do it first, and then others will follow,” Dang said.

Liza Raymond from Deakin University believes Dang has the temperament needed to succeed.

“She certainly has the right personality to do and make her dreams come true,” Raymond said.

In her studies, Dang relies on AI to interpret anatomical models, scans and diagrams, while her phone explains the images it detects.

She accepts that blindness would confine her medical work to diagnosis and consultations. Even so, she believes compassion would be one of her greatest strengths with patients.

“I won’t just be the doctor who can diagnose you and treat you, but I can be that doctor who can also help you through the ups and downs of being unwell,” she said.