JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — He’s a full-time brain surgeon and part-time movie star.
Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, a brain surgeon and researcher dean at the Mayo Clinic, came to the U.S. as a migrant farm worker and is now saving lives in the operation room. Both his research students and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic call him Dr. Q, a name he didn’t expect others to call him.
He came to the U.S. with big dreams, but not originally in the medical field.
“The reason why we call it the American Dream and we have coined it and is the place where it happens the most. In America, things happen much more than ... in many other countries,” he said.
Quinones-Hinojosa comes from a small village in Mexico. Growing up, he would help his grandmother, the town healer, go to different homes and help people with their medical needs.
“I got to see first hand what it was like to give patients hope. And I remember as a little boy, seeing my grandmother who had a very, strong personality, just like mine. I saw her hugging patients, patients, hugging her,” he told First Coast News. ”It was not until my late teens, early 20s that I began to understand the power of giving people hope. And I got to see that from my own family.”
Quinones-Hinojosa says his first visit to a doctors office didn't happen until he immigrated to the United States. It wasn’t until he spent a couple years in the states that he discovered his calling of being a brain surgeon.
“Growing up, health care was mainly given in the pharmacies every now and then. We would have doctors that would come into our communities and would actually do exams on us as little kids. But I don't remember meeting a doctor,” added Quinones-Hinojosa.
Seeing the need for Spanish speaking doctors in the states, he worked odd jobs on the farm or the railroads just to get him and his family through medical school.
“It all began with my community college here in the United States with my UC Berkeley experience in Neurosciences. And then eventually with my medical school at Harvard, my residence at UCSF and then my first job at Johns Hopkins,” he mentioned.
Now, Quinones-Hinojosa create a safe space in the patient room at Mayo Clinic for those who don’t speak English or have cultural differences about medicine.
“When you provide culturally competent care for patients, patients do better, less expense and less of a burden in our economy. And a higher chance that our population is going to be much more productive also, economically and culturally in all different ways,” he explained.
He calls it cultural competency. To this day, his grandmother’s approach to health care influences what he does with patients day to day.
“I not only understand the language but I understand the nuance of their culture. I understand what they want to hear from a doctor,” he said.
After asking him for the past decade to make a movie, Quinones-Hinojosa has finally said yes to the writers with Plan B Entertainment to turn his life story into a movie on Disney+.
“I'm honored, I'm humble. I'm embarrassed to be honest with you. It is not a story about me is a reflection of so many other immigrants. It speaks about this American dream, all this universal dream.”
The movie is currently in the writing stage and does not have a release date yet. Till then, Quinones-Hinojosa will continue doing what he does best: taking care of patients here in Florida and internationally.