Francis V. Adams

My father was a physician and my mother a nurse so that I feel I was born into medicine. My earliest memories are going on house calls and to the hospital with my Dad to see patients. This upbringing had a great impact on me and my brother and sister who are both health care professionals. I started working in hospitals in my teens, at first cleaning the operating rooms and then taking EKGs and breathing tests. I learned alot from my father who treated his patients as individuals, not as diseases. He treated everyone equally, rich or poor, and often accepted goods for his services or nothing at all if he felt his patient could not afford to pay. I also inherited from my parents a love and appreciation of art and beauty, nature, the dignity of animals, and a love of history. I majored in history in college and considered a career in diplomacy before deciding on medicine.