There's no substitute for loving what you do and doing what you love. Whether you love running a business, healing the sick or doing something else entirely different, a genuine passion for your profession makes all the difference.
"You have to love what you do," said Dr. Tomy Starck, the highly esteemed ophthalmologist who runs the UltraVision private practice in San Antonio. "If you don't like what you do and you're trying to look for secondary gains, sooner or later it will get you into trouble. But if you love what you do, [and] if it's something you get pleasure out of, the sky's the limit."
And Starck would know all about the rewards associated with following one's passion. He's the cornea- and refractive-surgery extraordinaire who helped pioneer the practice of the LASIK, or laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis, surgery in the United States. Thanks to Starck and his personalized laser vision correction system of choice at UltraVision (Bausch & Lomb Zyoptix), a number of people with corneal issues now have clearer vision than ever.
If you visit Starck's Web site at www.Lasik2c.com, you'll encounter a number of glowing testimonials describing the results as "truly amazing" and "a blessing," among other things.
Starck's colleagues also think very highly of him, according to Dr. Steven Campbell, a therapeutic optometrist who's known Starck for about 15 years. He describes Starck as "the go-to man when a cornea is in trouble. And he is one of the premier refractive surgeons. I always refer my patients to him for LASIK surgery. His level of expertise, I think, is unparalleled in the city."
Remember what Starck said about loving your work? From the surgery itself to the "very rewarding immediate results," he practices what he preaches.
"There's nothing like being able take somebody who cannot see and help them [to where] when they walk into the office, they're unable to see, and when they walk out, they're able to see," he said. "It's a tremendous sensation."
He enjoys improving the lives of others so much that in some cases, he'll even perform the surgery for free.
"It's not unusual that we're the last stop for some patients with diseases who are referred here for surgery," he said. "A lot of them cannot afford it or don't have coverage or insurance. More than once I've done these procedures without charge just for the benefit of seeing them improve. If a patient needs to have [the surgery] done by me, I'll volunteer; I'm not going to just say, 'No, too bad.' I think I've been blessed with the gifts I have, so I need to share them."
Starck may have many gifts, but he also has a stellar medical background and a very extensive and impressive education. The Cali, Colombia native completed his initial studies for his M.D. at the University of Valle in his home country, and then began his ophthalmology residency training under the guidance of Dr. Jose Barraquer, one of Starck's "most important mentors" who's known around the world as the "father of refractive surgery as we know it today," according to Starck's Web site.
Starck decided to continue his studies in the United States and was "very fortunate" to gain acceptance to the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School, where he served as a cornea fellow. After realizing that "the medicine and the technology were here," he chose to stay.
"Even though I could go back to my country and probably be an excellent surgeon in my country, other factors such as security could jeopardize my career and my family, so I decided to stay in the United States," Starck said. "But in order to be board-certified in your specialty, you need to have training in this country, so I had to start my training all over again."
That's how Starck ended up at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Although he visited multiple U.S. cities for interviews, he chose the Alamo City because "it's very nice. I loved the weather, and a lot of people were speaking Spanish, so I thought that was a great advantage for me."
Starck's trainers at the center "realized they had somebody who was exceptionally trained," according to Starck, so they asked him to stay on as a full-time faculty member the day after his training ended. He earned his board certification in ophthalmology and went on to serve as director of the center's Refractive Surgery Service and to establish its LASIK Center between 1994 and 2002.
He initially performed LASIK surgeries only in Colombia because "[LASIK] was not available in the United States at the time. It existed in the rest of the world, but not in the United States, so you can imagine how difficult it was when I was initially showing the procedure to the medical community here and they didn't understand very well what I was talking about. By the time it was approved by the FDA, we had already created a significant department of LASIK surgery. It was a long road."
The latest development on this road is the establishment of a new building at UltraVision that "has every state-of-the-art gadget for eyes you can imagine. I wanted it to have not the feel of a clinic, but of a spa. It has a Zen-type feeling, and there's excellent customer service from all of our people here, so that kind of lowers your stress and worries about if you're going blind or not."
As Starck has achieved many of his goals and reached his desired professional level, he has more time these days to spend with his "two wonderful children" and to visit his brother in Colombia, whom he describes as his "No. 1 mentor and all-around very strong supporter," as well as to enjoy his other passion: scuba diving.
"I like to go scuba diving as far as I can," he said. "I choose very strange and exotic places, and as soon as I can, I just pack my bags and go scuba. It recharges me big time just to see the world underwater; it's unbelievable and amazing, and I love it."
