Mike's Story

Despite having no doctors in my family, I was always drawn to the medical profession as a kid. That fascination only grew when I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age nine. I quickly gained a deep appreciation for the wonders of the human body as I was forced to learn how to manage my own blood glucose levels, which can be challenging at times. A complex task, normally dealt with unconsciously by the pancreas, had suddenly become my full time responsibility. Medicine, in my mind, is more art than science. At the end of the day, you can memorize pathways, of action or lab values, but someone can just as easily look those things up. It is the connection you form with another human being in their time of need that sets doctors apart. “The patient does not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” This is why I fell in love with medicine and is how I know this is my calling. I will always be a patient before I am a doctor. That is what my childhood diagnosis has given me: a passion for medicine, and a perspective. A perspective that will forever tie me to the patient side, to keep me humble, to keep me connected, to keep me motivated.

Mike Natter