Sad Story

[FishForLunch]

I knew this man's father, he works at Childrens Medical Center as the Chief Cardio-Thoracic Surgeon. He operated on my son. His dad was a very decent and caring man. Sometimes I think bad things only happen to good people.

Doctor was driven by compassion for indigent patients
By STEPHANIE WEINTRAUB and JO ANN ZUÑIGA
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

After years of study, Dr. Hitoshi Nikaidoh, 35, was well on the way to achieving his goal -- becoming a missionary physician to provide for the medical and religious needs of the world's underserved.

But on Saturday, the youthful resident physician's life was cut short by a malfunctioning elevator at Christus St. Joseph Hospital.

While authorities are investigating the cause of the tragic accident, his family and friends will be remembering his high calling and good deeds.

Nikaidoh, who was born in Japan in 1968, attended Choate Rosemary Hall, a prep school in Connecticut, and was an undergraduate student at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania.

With ambitions to be a doctor, he moved to Dallas and worked in the cardiac catheterization lab at the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas.

He graduated in June from the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, where he was an active student. Among his pursuits in school were mentoring younger students and giving talks about interweaving medicine and Christianity

Nikaidoh also helped organize MediSend, in which medical students and graduates gathered second-hand medical equipment and shipped it to Third World countries, said David Bates, spokesman for the University of Texas Health Science Center.

"He was very prominent during his years here," Bates said.

Medical school classmate and friend Cory Burrough agreed.

"He was just involved in everything," he said.

Nikaidoh also served as Student InterCouncil president, which was a leadership position over six schools including the medical school, Bates said.

Nikaidoh was a volunteer with the Houston Outreach Medicine, Education and Social Services at Trinity Episcopal Church, a program providing medical care to indigent patients.

Nikaidoh's decision to become a missionary doctor led him on mission trips throughout the world, his father Hisashi Nikaidoh, said from his Dallas-area home. His son's most recent venture was a two-week trip to Vietnam in June, just before beginning the residency program in general surgery at Christus St. Joseph Hospital.

The elder Nikaidoh, a pediatric heart surgeon at the Children's Medical Center of Dallas, said his son always gave his full attention to the people in his life, family and friends.

"We suddenly realized he sent a loving e-mail to his grandmother yesterday," he said.

Upon graduation, Nikaidoh was voted by his medical school peers as the winner of the prestigious Golden Cane award.

"It encompasses everything that you think a doctor should be, caring and compassionate," said Burrough. "No matter what was going on or how stressful it got, he always greeted you with a smile. He was always interested in what was going on in everybody's life."

Chron

Chron

[DNNF]

Very sad story indeed [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] I found out this story on that same day as the tragedy happened as I have many friends worked at St. Joseph. They said that he is such a caring and passionate Dr. My wife has the pleasure to work with him for a few weeks during residency training at UT houston.