>> I was born in Trinidad and Tobago down in the West Indies.
I grew up there for the first 15 years of my life.
Then I went off to high school in England.
And so upon completing high school in England, I ended up attending the University of Miami
for both pre-med undergraduate as a chemistry major and getting
into medical school a year early, so the University of Miami med school.
Did that and then decided to do an internal medicine residency, which I completed also
at Jackson Memorial Hospital which is the facility attached to University of Miami,
and then was asked to stay on the faculty.
So I taught at the med school and did many other things.
When did I decide I wanted to become a doctor?
Well, you know, I got to be candid, probably around age 7 or 8.
I knew that that's what I wanted to do.
I was inspired by the physician who took care of me and my family.
He was a general practitioner; he made house calls, you know.
I remember a couple of times where I was very ill and he made me better.
Of course he gave me a shot in the process, which didn't feel good at the time,
but I felt great the next day and then [inaudible].
So that was one, and then you know, back then, watching television shows like Marcus Welby
and stuff like that really inspired me.
And just seeing the genuine interest in doing something day in and day out where you care
for people, they respect you, and they are grateful.
And that to me was the ideal career.
I think outside of that, my next option was to become a Catholic priest.
And so I decided to go the physician option and have had no regrets about it.