The cozy corner office and scenic view of the University of Iowa campus faded into the background for a moment, and Javier Campos was suddenly back in his childhood home in Nogales, M�xico.
"It's a unique design," Campos said at the time. "Rather than taking patients from room to room, it all can be done in one operation room."In the late 1990s, Campos became chief of cardiac anesthesiology at Iowa. He is also vice chair of clinical affairs and was named executive medical director of operating rooms last year."I saw her suffering, and I said, 'Grandma, I believe I can made a difference. I'm going to be a doctor, to treat you and other people who are suffering.' She always said, 'My grandson is going to treat me as soon as he finishes medical school.' Unfortunately, she passed too soon."I don't think because of politics, all patients, including in Cuba, should have limited access to technology or scientific information. I think Cuba is one of the countries that need it most. I have Hispanic roots. I've worked in M�xico and the U.S. I can understand the problem better in Cuba.""I wanted to be a doctor, even then," he said.After earning undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Guadalajara, Campos accepted a fellowship from Mexico's prestigious National Heart Institute."It was a state-of-the-art facility with topnotch cardiologists from all over the world. That was my formation there," he said. "I looked at how the leaders worked and carried on their operations and carried on their departments.""When I started moving to clinica research, I said, 'Look, there are too many unanswered questions,' and I believe I can answer those questions. I started answering questions based on my hypotheses. After multiple publications in national and international journals, I started getting invited to state, national and international meetings. I started seeing there was a really good connection from Latino countries."Campos was born in Nogales, but his family, including eight brothers and sisters, moved to Arizona when he was in junior high. Campos continued to attend a public school in Nogales and at 14 told his family he wanted to become a cardiac anesthesiologist. His dream was to practice in Nogales. "There was only one cardiologist in Nogales and only two anesthesiologists. Nogales needed people," he said. "I never wanted to be anything but a doctor."As congenial as he is driven, Campos is a five-time recipient of the Teacher of the Year award at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and Iowa and has been included on the list of Best Doctors in America five times. He's active in prestigious scientific societies, addresses international conventions frequently and is routinely published in elite international journals. In 2009, he was named executive director of the University of Iowa's operating rooms, another turn in his unusual journey from a Mexican border town to the American heartland."The first five years were basically devoted to teaching. Basically, I teach residents in the operating room. I like to teach people what I'm doing and exactly how we do it.In 1987, Campos visited Iowa, which was recruiting promising young minority talent. Only after receiving his airline tickets did he realize Iowa was located in the Midwest. "I had it confused with Idaho," he said. "In the beginning, it was a cultural shock. I started driving around and saw farms," he said. "But I came here because of the values placed on family. The heartland is where the values of the family and the food come from. And I like the patients - the best patients I've ever dealt with. If there's a surgery, there are 10-12 family members there.""I always focused on the scientific part," he added. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be an executive. This is a state-of-the art facility. This is the jewel of the Midwest."Campos has attended medical meetings in Europe, the Mideast and South America and developed a sophisticated understanding of health care systems in Latin American countries. In 1999, he was part of a delegation that traveled to Cuba for an international conference. The following year, he sent more than 150 volumes of mintcondition journals to Cuban anesthesiologists.In 1982, Campos accepted a position at UCLA. Though he planned to return to M�xico in two years, he stayed five years and never went home. His first months, however, were anything but easy. "I didn't speak English," he said. "I was sent to a course at UCLA for 10 weeks. It was the hardest course of my life. Every day, 7 a.m. until midnight, Saturday and Sunday included. I got frustrated. Didn't realize how hard it would be. But I persevered, and it paid off.""One thing that caught my attention right away at Iowa was the diversity program," he said. "Right away, I connected with many people from minority backgrounds. I saw they were doing very well as far as leadership positions."I'm a boy who came from Nogales who learned the hard way. I had dreams, but I never dreamed it would end up like this. I just wanted to make a difference."In April 2009, he oversaw the introduction of rooms that allow surgeons to conduct major and minimally invasive procedures. The process allows patients undergoing neurosurgery to return to their daily routines within days instead of weeks and even months.It was another one of those dreaded moments when his grandmother was doubled over in pain, her bones and joints swollen with crippling arthritis. Just 10 years old at the urne, Javier pulled out a plastic stethoscope that day to "treat" her.That wasn't an idle dream. Sitting at his desk in Iowa City, Campos, a professor of anesthesiology, is surrounded by photos, awards and mementos from a remarkable career."There is no way I'm going to stop what I'm doing," he said.Campos has come a long way from his boyhood days in M�xico when he hoped to heal his ailing grandmother.
"I'm a boy who came from Nogales who learned the hard way. I had dreams, but I never dreamed it would end up like this. I just wanted to make a difference."
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