Holding on to his faith, Colombian physician experiences the meaning of starting over

By Marietha Góngora V.

(OSV News) -- Determination, faith and discipline define a Colombian physician who, some time after migrating to the United States, worked for 13 years to return to practice his profession. Today, he specializes in endocrinology.

Two reasons prompted Dr. Luis Chávez Capera to leave his native Colombia and start a new life in the U.S.: He was a U.S. resident and his salary as a doctor was not the best, so he had three jobs. This kept him from dedicating time to Francy Valencia, his wife, and their two children, and it was taking a toll on his health.

"I worked seven days a week at three jobs … and even, so the situation was quite complicated. That forced me to come to the United States in search of better opportunities," explained Chávez. In June 2002, he began his new journey in New York City.

"I was 33 years old; I didn't speak English," he recalled, explaining that starting a new life was not easy. He found work cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms at a restaurant.

He later found a job as a medical assistant, and that was his entry, once again, into the world of medicine. After a year in that job, he was able to bring his family to the U.S. "We went to live in a studio apartment with my mom, my wife, my kids and me," he told OSV News.

What he earned barely covered the family's basic needs, so he decided to take a second job and began working as a phlebotomist in a hospital. In the evenings, he continued to take English classes. "I would start work at 5:00 a.m. and come home at 10:00 p.m.," Chávez said.

Through it all, he added, faith was central to every step his family has taken in this country.

He especially remembers how God helped them in 2004, when Valentina, his 5-year-old daughter, spent months in the hospital with meningoencephalitis -- a rare and life-threatening condition caused by the infection or inflammation of the area around the spinal cord and the brain.

"Back then, I didn't know (much) English, and we had to look for interpreters. My wife was with my daughter 24 hours a day," he recalled. "Prayer was the most important thing to get our little girl through after seeing her lose all her functions and become bedridden and unable to walk."

Gradually, their daughter recovered over the months that followed. "The same doctor who treated her, a Jewish neurologist, told us that our God had done the miracle for the girl to be healed."

After much prayer, Chávez began studying professional nursing at Lehman College in the Bronx in 2005, while he continued working as a phlebotomist. Two years later, he graduated and began working as a nurse at Queens Hospital Center, where he worked until 2013 while preparing for his med school exams.

As published in 2018 by the website of the U.S. Embassy in Colombia: "Less than half of the applicants who are U.S. citizens are accepted to medical schools and, typically, less than 3% of international applicants are accepted."

Along his journey in the U.S., Chávez said, he met many doctors working in bakeries, restaurants, parking lots, and others as medical assistants. "Many, for one reason or another, did not take the exams; some of them took them and did not pass. I know of others who pass them but do not receive them anywhere," he said.

Aware of this, he studied for a year and a half to pass three exams and thus return to practice as a physician in the United States and study a specialty. "For a year, I prepared for the first exam, and I passed, thank God," he explained.

He then passed his second and third exams and entered the internal medicine program at Mount Sinai Medical Center School of Medicine, which is affiliated with Queens Hospital.

After studying internal medicine for three years, Chávez was accepted to the University of Rochester, New York, to study endocrinology, earning a degree in June 2018. He had finally achieved his dream.

"Prayer and faith in God is what really sustains us in this country," he said gratefully. "First, to get us through our daughter's illness, to help us persevere. He has been key in keeping us united in love with my wife and our children."