TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 7 34 Q | Your wife, Shay, is your nurse practitioner. How did you meet and how do you balance your professional and personal lives? A | Where else? In the hospital. I spend my life in the hospital, so it is kind of hard to meet someone anywhere else. We have been working together for 20 years. It makes our relationship stronger because she understands what I do for a living; she's never held me back. I taught her how to manage the patients after the surgery and what to look for before the surgery so she has been my eyes and ears. She thinks exactly the way I think and she knows the way I like things so it makes it even easier. I think it is a win-win situation. Q | Do you think your daughter, Lily, 13, will follow in your footsteps and go into medicine? A | She loves science, but I think you have to let kids decide what they want to do or else they won't be happy in the future. There are not that many children of physicians who become physicians because they see the work their mother and father have to go through—they see it is very time-consuming and it's a decision they need to make themselves. I don't know if she fully understands what I do now, but one day she will. Q | What are your thoughts on Fidel Castro and his influence on your homeland? A | That's a very touchy subject. Fidel Castro came in as the savior of Cuba and everyone thought he would make things better. Communism on paper is a utopian sort of government, but when it is practiced, it is totally the opposite. Castro killed a lot of people in Cuba, imprisoned a lot of people, took everything my family had. Now Castro has died, but his brother is still a pretty vicious dictator himself and the regime is not over. The sad thing is that Fidel Castro was never put on trial for what he did. Dying was probably the easy way out. My father passed away in 2001, but my mother is still alive and she tells me stories. We had a few homes in Cuba, several businesses, and we were pretty well off. But everything was taken away. Right now, imagine someone told you to empty your purse and then took you to Russia and dropped you off in Moscow. Let's say you have kids and older parents to take care of. Where would you start? How would you start? When my father came to this coun- try, he washed dishes, cleaned toilets, patched holes in golf courses, did whatever he could. For a man who had a lot of pride and several businesses his grandfather left him, it must have been hard to go from one life to the other. But he did it because he had to. My work ethic comes a lot from him. I was doing 700 cardiac operations a year before coming here. The average heart sur- geon does 100 to 150 per year. Work has never bothered me because my father instilled that in me. Q | What's the current state of health care in Cuba? A | Terrible. The Cuban surgeons that have come to visit me ask for aspirin and for heparin, which prevents the formation of blood clots. One came to watch me and I asked him how many surgeries he was doing and he said, 'Well, we haven't done one in a couple of months because we haven't been able to get heparin.' People die over there because the resources are not there. When Cuba is a free country, I would love to go back and see where I was born. My father didn't want to go back until it was a free Cuba, so I want to honor his wishes. Imagine living on Hermann Drive — Houston's own version of New York City's Central Park West. Located in the historic 1400 Hermann Drive Condominiums, this architect-designed residence is nestled in trees, has two bedrooms, two baths, and overlooks Hermann Park. Living room, dining room, and master bedroom face the McGovern Centennial Gardens. Kitchen and guest bedroom enjoy swimming pool and tennis court views. Only two homes in the city have this location and view — and one of them is now for sale. YOUR PRESCRIPTION FOR A BETTER LIFE High-rise living in the trees overlooking Hermann Park www.1400Hermann.life 713-523-3425 C M Y CM MY CY CMY K TMC_Pulse_Archimage_July5 2017-2.pdf 1 7/10/17 2:59 PM When my father came to this country, he washed dishes, cleaned toilets, patched holes in golf courses, did whatever he could. For a man who had a lot of pride and several businesses his grandfather left him, it must have been hard to go from one life to the other. But he did it because he had to. My work ethic comes a lot from him. — JOSEPH LAMELAS, M.D. Associate chief of cardiac surgery in the division of cardiothoracic surgery at Baylor College of Medicine

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