The people's doctor
Immokalee pediatrician says caring for low-income children is a mission, not a job
- By TRACY X. MIGUEL
- Naples Daily News
The people's doctor » Naples Daily News
The Villarosa Clan in 2007 (The matriarch Josie Villarosa, mother of the Doctor is my first cousin. There are three doctors in this family) The good doctor, my nephew is 4th from the right.
Dr. V and his very large family
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GRAND PARENTS AND PARENTS
AUNTIE MARISSA PLAYING FOR THE PASOS FAMILY
Awards & Recognition for Dr. Melanio Villarosa
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Dr. Melanio Villarosa, center, has Brian Sustaita, 4, right, blow on a piece of paper held by his mother Adriana Gonzalez while brother Brandon, 2, left, looks on as Dr. V checks the child’s lungs at his practice, Immokalee Pediatrics. Dr. V, 51, has been working in Immokalee for more than 18 years, serving the children of the lower income migrant community, who mostly depend on Medicaid. Dr. V tries to develop a friendship with each of his patients, “When you love the people here, they love you back, “ Dr. V said.
10 photos
After 9 p.m., Dr. Melanio Villarosa, center, finally sits down with his family for dinner. Dr. V, spends a few hours after work every night, filling out paperwork by hand, because he says he can’t afford the technology to have computer records. He then drives more than an hour home from Immokalee to be with his wife, Maria Teresita, left, his daughter, Angie, 17, right, a Naples High School senior, and Josiah, 13, who attends East Naples Middle school. Dr. V has two other daughters, Danielle, and Melanie, both of whom attend University of South
Ancema Uriostegui holds Jesus, 1, on her lap as she waits in a lobby area about the size of a bus. The other eight chairs — worn, green and made of wood — are filled with other parents and children waiting to see Dr. V.
Laughter fills the pediatrician’s colorful office in Kemp Plaza, an Immokalee strip mall adjacent to a discount store, Sunshine Medical and Therapy Center and a Protestant church.
For the past 10 years, Uriostegui, 36, has taken her four children, ages 12, 10, 8 and 1, to pediatrician Melanio Villarosa. She recalls the time he treated her adopted son even though he had no insurance. He didn’t charge them anything.
Villarosa sees 25 patients during the course of a day — all low-income and under the poverty line.
“More than being a good doctor,” says Uriostegui in Spanish, “he has a good heart.”
Perhaps Villarosa’s office is not only a pediatrician office, but also a ministry of sorts.
***
In the hallway, photographs of more than 125 patients and donated religious decorations hang on the blue and white walls.
A portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe watches over the 865-square-foot office with three pink and blue exam rooms filled with an array of cartoon posters on the walls and ceilings.
The clinic has no computer filing system, so with the help of his two nurses, Villarosa hand-writes each file at the end of the day. Often, Villarosa, a husband and father of four who commutes daily to Immokalee from his home in East Naples, doesn’t leave his office until 7 or 8 p.m.
While checking out Jesus’ heart with a stethoscope, Villarosa asks Uriostegui about her son’s health. The concerned single mother was visiting the doctor because Jesus was suffering from constipation.
“Lo siento (I’m sorry),” Villarosa tells Jesus as he checks him. He’s wearing a bolo tie with a buttoned-up long-sleeved shirt and slacks. He rarely wears a white doctor’s jacket. He wants to be approachable to both adults and children, he says.
To ease the boy’s tears, Villarosa playfully pokes a finger at his belly and “magically” pulls stickers from behind his ear.
Jesus’ tiny hand accepts the stickers. He giggles.
During the visit, a nurse gives Uriostegui a free packet of about 72 diapers, one of about 15 packets donated by Ave Maria University.
For the past 18 years, Villarosa has been committed to helping families in the small farming community 40 miles northeast of Naples. He doesn’t charge patients who don’t have insurance or charges very low fees. Of Villarosa’s 1,000 patients, about 90 percent are on Medicaid.
“We don’t discriminate,” Villarosa says. “To me, they are children of God.”
Funds to serve patients without insurance — for free or for a fee of $10, $15 or $20 — come from One by One Leadership Foundation of Southwest Florida, a faith-based, nonprofit organization. The pediatric clinic receives at least $1,000 a month from them, Villarosa says.
Florida Community Bank, which has headquarters in Immokalee, has been paying his medical malpractice insurance premiums for the past two years. This year, he received more $12,000.
The board felt that they needed to support Villarosa, says Steve Price, chairman of the board and CEO of the bank.
“Dr. V is an outstanding pediatrician and Immokalee desperately needs him,” Price says. “He is not only a good doctor, but a man who has a good heart.”
Father Patrick O’Connor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish echoes Price’s sentiments, commending Villarosa for giving up what could have been a “very lucrative career” to serve the poor community.
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