By By JAN GRIFFEY / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Dr. Florentino Aquino keeps a small photo album on his office desk. He leafed through it earlier this week, showing off photos of his dream-come-true – a 23-bed hospital and clinic, which is providing much-needed medical care in his hometown of Kiamba in The Philippines.
After practicing medicine here for more than 34 years, Aquino is returning to his native land to make good on the reason he became a physician in the first place – to provide medical care to those who live in the rural community in which he was raised.
Aquino, an icon in the Niles medical community, is closing his practice in Niles to devote himself to the venture. He will leave at the end of this month to return to The Philippines and work to bring surgical services to the hospital.
"Right now we don't do surgery there – only minor procedures," he said. "There is a great need for more. I'll establish a surgical practice in the area and work to recruit a surgeon to help out."
At the same time, he will also be sharing with young surgeons in that country much that he has learned in his 34 years of practicing surgery in Niles.
Aquino's professional accomplishments in Niles are many, including bringing laproscopic surgery to the area. That's a skill he plans to take with him to The Philippines and share with younger surgeons.
"The area is very, very rural," said Mrs. Luz Aquino, the doctor's wife. Despite the fact that the town is home to about 35,000 residents, "until he began this, there was no EKG machine, no X-Ray machine, no lab in the area. You had to drive two hours to get a blood test."
Not anymore, thanks to the Aquinos.
A chance encounter leads
to a life-changing decision
"There's a story behind this," Mrs. Aquino said. "His mother told me this. He doesn't even know I know this. Tino was good in mathematics when he was young. In The Philippines, if you are good in mathematics, your parents assume and you assume you will become an engineer. So, he enrolled in engineering and was going to a Jesuit university in the big city when he had a chance encounter with the governor of their province. A chance encounter, mind you."
The governor talked Aquino into becoming a doctor, she said.
"He told him we need doctors, we don't need engineers. And the kind of doctors we need are those who are willing to serve in the rural areas, so that's what he became," Mrs. Aquino said.
Aquino began his work in earnest to establish the clinic and hospital in 1998, when his mother, Teodora, closed the general store she had owned and operated in Kiamba for many years.
"She worked until she was age 86 or 87," Mrs. Aquino said. She died about three years ago at the age of 96.
Aquino has been traveling to work on the project at least twice a year. He transformed the building that for so many years housed the store into the first phase of the clinic, and added onto it an apartment – and furnished it – in order to provide housing for physicians who work there.
"We really must provide them housing in order to get physicians from the cities to come there and work. This is a very rural area. There's nothing to do. They have more fun in the cities. It's hard to convince doctors to come there. Tino built an apartment and furnished it and we provide food for them. His sister lives next door, so she feeds them, too!"
Mrs. Aquino is from Leyte in The Philippines, "where MacArthur landed when the U.S. liberated The Philippines," she said. "Our families knew each other. My uncle, with whom I stayed during the summers, was a good friend of his parents'."
When the Aquinos return to The Philippines later this month, he will rejoin two sisters and a brother and many nieces and nephews. The couple will move back into the family's ancestral home.
Aquino began his work on establishing the hospital in Kiamba in 2002.
"Did you know all these years, since 1971, he has worked in the emergency room to raise extra money to finance this? The money never really went to the family coffers, but went to finance this project," Mrs. Aquino said.
"When the kids were done with school, I asked myself, 'What am I doing here in the U.S., when I became a doctor to serve my hometown?' " Aquino said.
After completing his surgical residency in Detroit, the Aquinos moved to Cassopolis in 1971, where Aquino practiced with Dr. Aaron Warren. In 1973, he began his private practice of medicine and general surgery in Niles and has provided medical care to literally thousands of residents here.
The move to Niles area was facilitated by the city's Chamber of Commerce director at the time, Justin McCartly.
"He drove us around to Notre Dame and the Joyce ACC and downtown South Bend. We had our little boy with us, about three years old, who cried so much in the car," Mrs. Aquino said.
"He (McCartly) knew that Notre Dame is a big draw for this area, and we thought it was, too. My wife wanted to live near a major university," Aquino said.
Bittersweet departure
The Aquinos came to the U.S. after Aquino graduated from medical school.
"During that time, after medical school, the U.S. offered an exchange visitor program for doctors from other countries to do their residency here. After residency, you had to go home for two years, then you could apply for an immigrant VISA. After my residency was over, it was during the Vietnam War, and the U.S. really needed doctors and it was no longer a requirement that you go home for two years," Aquino said. "We had three children at the time, so I decided we probably should stay here."
When he began his medical practice in Niles, the late Jane Davis, who is known as a pioneer among female hospital administrators, was administrator at what was then Pawating Hospital.
"Her idea of running a hospital was to make it as inexpensive and efficient as you possibly can get and I think it was a success with that approach," Aquino said. The quality of medicine offered in Niles is "really good," he said.
Aquino's office on St. Joseph Avenue, across from Lakeland Hospital in Niles, won't be vacant long. Dr. Glenda Gensolin, a physician board certified in family medicine, will begin her practice there on Nov. 1.
At least two of Aquino's staff will join Gensolin. Carrie Clark will stay on as receptionist and Susan DeGraff will continue work as insurance coordinator.
"The new doctor is lucky. We are leaving everything – all the equipment, desks, everything. And Carrie and Susan are really outstanding employees. She could not find a better team," Mrs. Aquino said. "This lady is so lucky."
Aquino said leaving his patients and leaving his friends and colleagues in Niles is proving very difficult. At the same time, he said he finds himself excited about fulfilling what he sees as his life's dream.
The worst part of his decision to return to The Philippines is leaving his patients.
"Even after I made up my mind, sometimes I second-guess myself, but when I really look at it overall, it's what my kids would call a no-brainer," he said. "I have always wanted to do this other thing. I'm kind of excited about it."