A Heart for Healing

As a high school senior in Kent, Wash., with a talent for the violin and track and field, Nathan Eller was struck by a mysterious affliction after running, a mystery solved when an echocardiogram spied a cancerous mass lurking behind his heart. 

With the help of his family and then high school sweetheart and now wife, Fern, Eller made a full recovery from what would be diagnosed as lymphoma. However, he never forgot the encounter with the echocardiogram that possibly saved his life.

That experience led him to Seattle University’s Diagnostic Ultrasound program, the first of its kind in Washington state, and from which Eller will officially graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree this summer. 

While Eller will walk at commencement with his classmates this June, he needs to first complete his final internship—due to end in August—to earn his degree. Even though he is technically still a student, he has already accepted a position as an echocardiographer at Multicare Tacoma General Hospital and is currently on the job as a staff member on days he isn’t working as an intern.

“I haven't seen any of the same pathology that I had yet,” says Eller. “But every time that I see a patient that has something seriously wrong with their heart, I'm like, without this exam, they probably wouldn’t have as good of an outcome without someone like me doing this exam. So, it just feels like very meaningful work.”

During college Eller didn’t let go of his love of violin, an instrument he started playing at age 11, and one that allowed him to earn his living performing at weddings. 

“They just made us pick an instrument in elementary school and I remember there being a violinist at my church one time and I thought that it was really pretty, so I went for it,” he says.

Eller’s passion is classical music, but he commonly fields lots of pop requests. The most popular song he is asked to play? Elvis Presley’s, “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

On top of that, Eller found time to serve as one of two class representatives for his junior and senior years in the College of Nursing. He has talked to incoming students about the program, helped organize a professional development day where a host of recruiters presented to nursing and ultrasound students, as well as planning the graduation celebration for the class.

What stands out from his time at SU is the community he found among classmates.

“We're just so tight,” he says, pointing out the active group text chat that has facilitated the proofreading of manuscripts they are writing for academic journals. “It is cool knowing that I'm going through this exact same thing with these other people that I’m so close to.” 

When thinking of advice to offer students, he says not to worry. 

“Don’t worry too much about the present and don’t worry too much about the future because worrying about the future only negatively impacts the present,” he says. “Everything just kind of works itself out.”

This year's undergraduate and graduate commencement ceremonies are Sunday, June 9, at Climate Pledge Arena.