A longtime Central Coast pediatrician is now enjoying retirement after spending his last full day seeing patients at the end of last week.
Nearly 40 years ago, Dr. Rene Bravo decided to make the Central Coast his home. During that time, he helped thousands of children stay healthy. You don’t have to ask very many parents who their pediatrician is before Dr. Bravo’s name is mentioned.
He’s connected with families in a way few other physicians do – even being named San Luis Obispo’s “Citizen of the Year” by the Chamber of Commerce a few years ago.
When KSBY’s Richard Gearhart sat down with him just before he retired, Gearhart asked Dr. Bravo why the community feels such a connection to him.
“You know, that's, that's a question that I asked myself, to be honest with you. You know, I, I, I would like to say that I care. I really do care about the people that I'm interacting with. I want them to do well. I want people to do well. I want my community to do well. It's a good place to live,” Dr. Bravo said.
It was a little easier for one of his patients to explain. Sofia Diaz, 7, says it’s because he’s funny.
“In my ear and last checkup he said there's a dinosaur,” she said.
When Sofia’s oldest sister was born, her mom, Neri, didn’t have to go far for a pediatrician recommendation. She asked her own mother.
“Yeah, that was over 19 years ago. You know, he's been in the community for so many years, and I think he, my parents maybe took my younger brother to him, so he's just been a family doctor for, for generations,” she said.
Dr. Bravo says he’s especially proud of that.
“I call them grand patients. Yes, that's been one of the, really I was not prepared for that feeling when some would come in and they would say, and they're a young mother with a new infant, and they would say, 'You were my doctor.' And that, that just brings it. Sometimes it brings tears to my eyes because it really emphasizes to me how, how it goes from generation to generation and the impact that one can have on young lives,” Dr. Bravo said.
After all of those patients, it's hard to know when to put down the stethoscope for the last time, but Dr. Bravo says his own family helped him decide.
“It's, it's a hard decision. It's actually one of the hardest decisions I think, in this in my personal case. I think my family was the one who helped me decide. I mean, my, I have now eight grandchildren and, and they're growing older and I am too. And they're going through their lives and I really want to spend more time with them, seeing them,” he said, adding that he thinks he will miss the babies the most.
Dr. Bravo says he’s actually trying not to think about how much he’ll miss his patients.
“Oh, absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Yes, I will truly miss that. That's why I'm not trying to think too much on that because it does cause a lot of emotion in me because I have spent so many of my years caring for and trying to be the best doctor that I could for those young little families that I've seen,” he said.
As for his patients and their families, they feel the same.
“We're, we're going to miss him. We're going to miss seeing him. My girls are going to miss him, but we're, we feel honored to have been under his care for over 19 years. He's helped my girls, you know, live healthy lives, happy lives, and always with an added touch of magic. And I think that's irreplaceable,” Neri Diaz said.
Dr. Bravo will still be involved in medicine. He was recently elected to serve as the president of the California Medical Association. He’ll be the first physician from San Luis Obispo to serve s a president in the organization’s 100-plus year history.
