- November 23, 2024
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Dr. Vincent Verdeflor recently hired his second employee and became the Flagler Public Schools medical director.
Dr. Vincent Verdeflor, of new pediatrics clinic Pinnacles Peds Care, has been busy.
Having opened his practice Jan. 20, he recently surpassed his 2011 goal of seeing 500 patients by the end of October. He also volunteers at the Free Clinic, last month hired a medical assistant as his second employee and, a few weeks ago, became the Flagler County Public Schools medical director.
To celebrate, his office held a grand opening Nov. 8, at 180 Pinnacles Drive.
“I started here with nothing,” Verdeflor said, making a zero with his hand. His first patient was the child of one of his friends. “(But) I worked my way up.”
A Philippines native, Verdeflor came to the United States in 1989 as a licensed family physician. But to practice here, he would have to become American-trained. He took a teaching position in New York, and for two years, wasn’t sure he’d ever recertify — he’d have to go back to school and complete another residency tenure.
“But I said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘No way,’” Verdeflor explained. “It wasn’t easy. It was a tough road. (But) I never gave up.”
He slides out the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet, pulling out a single folder. “This was our first patient,” he said. Now, each level of the cabinet is packed to capacity, and a second one, standing tall beside the first, is beginning to get stocked, as well.
“When I first came here,” he said, “you just had to have that American dream.”
Ever since his sophomore year of high school, Verdeflor knew he wanted to be a doctor. It was his father’s dream job, as a younger man, but he never could afford the schooling.
“I will die happy if one of you will become a doctor,” his father once said to Verdeflor and his five siblings. On graduation day, his father felt a lump in his throat as he stood onstage with Verdeflor, pulling a hood over his son’s head, which signaled his graduation from medical school.
Verdeflor graduated from Cebu Doctor’s College of Medicine in the Phillipines, and went on to complete his residency in pediatrics at Charles R. Drew University, in Los Angeles.
He says his top priority in Flagler will be to tackle childhood obesity, a problem he plans to work with the school system to combat by collecting stats and possibly starting a new education program.
He touts the rewards of working with children, of watching them grow from babies to adults.
“I love these kids,” he said. “They’re my children.”
Looking back, Verdeflor never dreamed his life would turn out this way, that he’d have his own practice, in America, and have the opportunity to feel so fulfilled.
“You really have to think about us doctors — we’re here to serve. That is why we’re in this line of work,” he said. “I’m a doctor and will always be a doctor. I’m probably going to die being a doctor.”
For more, call 313-1963.
