I have been listening to, evaluating and treating patients for over 33 years. Changing someone’s life, even after one visit, lights me up. Allergy is my calling in life. I go to work every day and have fun. Eighty percent of the world hates their jobs. My staff and I love our work, what we do and the change in patient’s lives we create.

My dad told me “If you let the patient talk long enough they will tell you what is wrong with them”. That is why I spend my time listening to the patient and getting to know them. Helping a “friend” is easier and more rewarding than just treating a patient.

Also when there is a difficult decision to make on an evaluation, diagnosis or treatment I think of another pearl my dad taught me. “If you have a tough decision to make, what would you do if it was your family?” This makes decision making very easy. My dad has retired after 60 years of practice.

Baseball is my religion. I believe that all life is based on baseball. The Yankees are my team. My dad took to me to my first game at “The Stadium” on June 8, 1968 and I was able to see my hero, Mickey Mantle.

My brother and I ran one of the best and well known baseball and sports card and memorabilia companies in the 80’s, Lanting Collectables. Through this I met many great customers who were great fans and had many wonderful conversations about sports.

Skydiving came into my life in my 40’s. I have 291 jumps and am a Class D skydiver. There is not a small plane I haven’t jumped out of and also have jumped from helicopters, balloons and a C-130. Most challenging were the high altitude jumps. I have jumped in Colorado, Alaska, Arizona, Illinois and multiple sites in Florida and California. Unfortunately I took out both legs on jump 286, a right femur and left Tibia/fibula. After recovering and getting the rods out I got back up there.

Travel has always been a passion. My parents knew travel was a great from of education and took me on numerous car and airplane trips. I have visited all 50 states and 83 countries. There are less new countries lately as I am on a mission to show my wife all the special places in the world that I have fallen in love with. We have visited 30 countries in our 10 years together.

There are my 14 near death experiences, but that will be the subject of an upcoming book. Four by water, three by tornado, two by lightning, one helicopter, two traffic, one skydiving and the elephant in Botswana.

My passion though will always be patient care. I knew I would be a doctor at 5 years of age. That is when I made my first housecall with my dad. I, like my dad and his colleagues, will die with my stethoscope on.