As promised last month, Alamo Hospice is excited to introduce you to our Medical Director Dr. Leo Edwards. Edwards joined Alamo Hospice at its inception in fall 2005. His compassionate leadership has guided us from the beginning. Rather than try to tell his story, we thought you would enjoy hearing it directly from him.
Alamo Hospice: Dr. Edwards, on behalf of our readers here at M.D., welcome! Tell us a little about your San Antonio roots.
Dr. Edwards: I was born and raised here in San Antonio, growing up on the East Side. My father ran a television and radio repair shop. All of my education, up to my senior year in high school, was here. I was very active in my church, Holy Redeemer, and my senior year I decided to enter seminary and become a Marianist. I spent four years with them, two in St. Louis and Wisconsin. The last two years I returned to San Antonio and then made a decision to leave the order and pursue medicine. I was accepted at UT Austin, then UTMB in Galveston for medical school. After my residency in Detroit, I came home. The sisters at Holy Redeemer Convent had been instrumental in my education and offered me the convent facilities for an office. I opened my office in the downstairs and I lived upstairs. I have been practicing on the East Side ever since.
AH: Tell us about your connection to the East Side today.
Dr. Edwards: Obviously my practice is there and I am still very active at Holy Redeemer. It is my community. My connection is largely patient–driven. What happens is you feel some of the needs of who your patients are and what their needs are. Those transfigure you into this person who gets involved in the community because you listen to them. You feel like you need to do something to help folks who have these needs. Being involved in the community is a window into those needs.
AH: You have a large geriatric patient population. How did that develop?
Dr. Edwards: An internal medicine practice tends to attract older people because of their disease processes. We see very few children, a small number of adolescents. Older patients tend to have more needs. Through the years, most of the folks who have come to see us have been older, and my patient population has become a predominantly geriatric population.
AH: Tell us about your view of hospice. What do you see as its value?
Dr. Edwards: It’s like this. You have a deeply overwhelming situation. You just wish you had someone you could talk to, or a friend or someone who could help you through this situation. It’s a time in life where the patient’s needs and the family’s needs are just so great that they look for a friend who can help them feel their way through it. That’s what hospice is all about. That’s what hospice does.
AH: Can you describe your role as the medical director at Alamo Hospice?
Dr. Edwards: I am part of a team, with nurses, social workers, spiritual counselors and nursing assistants. I listen to the cases. On the more difficult ones we figure out to handle the medical issues. A lot of times we primarily deal with family dynamics. We try to help with all of those circumstances to work things out so that everyone begins to feel more comfortable about this transition.
AH: Why is hospice important to the San Antonio community?
Dr. Edwards: When a family member is terminally ill, it is the deepest, potentially the saddest time in a family’s life. Most have difficulty handling that and they really need someone to help guide them through that. The hospice team is here to say, “Here we are to help you with that.” Our community needs that kind of service.
We want to thank Dr. Edwards for his deep commitment to San Antonio and to Alamo Hospice. He is a giant community leader. He is a vital part of our success, leading with awesome humility, indescribable compassion, and wise steady counsel.
Please come back next month. We will either introduce you to another of our team members, or uncover another piece of hospice and end–of–life care.
