When her first career dreams were absolutely dashed, Dr. Maria Artunduaga reinvented herself, founded a company, and learned to thrive.Trained as a physician in her home country, Colombia, Maria dreamed of coming to the US to become a pediatric plastic surgeon and hustled to make it happen. When blatant discrimination and subsequent litigation forced her out of medicine forever, she felt stuck. Eventually, she trained and studied to become an engineer and entrepreneur. She founded Respira Labs and is using acoustics to identify COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) flareups. Maria shares her journey, her advice for others going through career hell or facing discrimination, and lessons learned as a CEO. We are honored to share her story as part of our Journeys series. Find Maria on Twitter @DrArtunduaga and Respira Labs @RespiraLabs or RespiraLabs.com. Subscribe to Double Shelix and tell your friends! Find us on Twitter @doubleshelixpod or email us - [email protected]. Thanks to the Berkeley Student Tech Fund for supporting the series and to Joel Wanek for editing and production.