I was always interested in learning about the human body and I was really good at science. But I think I even surprised myself at age 16, when my high school guidance counselor asked what I wanted to be and I said "a doctor". My mom was shocked, too. I am from a family of 6 kids and because I didn't get into a lot of trouble, I kind of flew under the radar. After that declaration, I was committed. I went to UC Riverside for pre-med. On the first day of freshman year, they told the 144 kids in the bio-med department that only 24 of us would be admitted to UCLA medical school. As it turned out, 20 of us were admitted. I entered med school thinking I'd become an internist. During my rotations though, I found that we were treating a lot of patients but not curing them. In orthopedics, we were fixing people. When anyone asks me now what kind of surgery I do, I say, "those that work". I like to make people feel better.

My driving force every day is to provide the best possible care to my patients. My litmus test on every patient is whether or not I'd follow that treatment plan on myself. If the answer is "no", then I won't do it. I love this profession far more than most people do. My goal is to preserve quality medicine in our community. I am confident that my patients would agree that I deliver that. While I am very proud of the diplomas on my wall, nothing beats the drawer and wall full of letters from patients and their families telling me that I've changed their lives.