“I was about 10, and I went to play soccer. I remember that day it was rainy and cold, during the late fall, and I got really sick. My parents were going take me to the herbalist a few hours away, but they got really busy and instead took me to our family pediatrician who was close by and who gave me antibiotics. A day later, I started to have this rash. I slowly turned into like a tomato, and then a prune. They rushed me to the community hospital and things got kind of grim as each day went by. The doctor said, ‘you know what, I think his kidney and his liver are failing.’ So long story short, they immediately decided we can’t do much for him here, we’ll have to put him on a jet and get him up to Stanford Hospital. Thankfully they were able to stabilize my condition but my pediatrician was telling my parents that, you know if we were 10 minutes later, I might not have made it.
What I remember the most was the effort, the nurses, the doctors, they were so passionate. They focused on me, and I could see it in their faces, their expressions that tell you how much they care about you, and even after the recovery, they were concerned about the ramifications. Those people, I remember all of them. They were so dedicated to saving my life, they did everything. And even if I didn’t make it, I think my parents would still be very satisfied that those doctors, those nurses, they did everything they could to provide the best care.
At that young age, I got this tremendous impression that these are people that I could look up to and want to be like. As I got older I realized that I could make a difference in someone’s life, just like these doctors and nurses. I wanted to be appreciated like that.
So today I am a naturopathic doctor. There is chronic suffering among people, you know, I see cancer patients every single day. But the thing is, even if you don’t have a cure yet, you can still do a lot of things to alleviate fear, suffering and pain. So for me, you know, I’ll let the science catch up to what we’re doing, I’ll let them do all the research and figure it out. I’m not in the scientific community anymore, but if I deem that it’s non-harmful, non-invasive, and it’s going to help my patients, I’m going do that. I’m not going to wait for the science to prove it.”