Dr. George Green isn’t the “suit-and-tie” kind of doctor, his colleagues say, and in the almost 30 years he’s practiced in Gilroy, his patients have come to see him as more than just their doctor – he’s family.
Green has received the Vincentian Spirit Award, an honor given by the St. Louise Regional Hospital on a regular basis to a physician nominated by his colleagues for exceptional work and care.
At first sight, Green might be any old “regular Joe.” Gray stubble dots his unshaven face, and his Levi Jeans and green-striped button-down shirt stand out amid the scrubs and suits of the St. Louise Regional Hospital staff. He talks and jokes with the nurses, takes phone calls from his patients on his cell phone right on the spot – and he just so happens to be one of the top pulmonary doctors of Northern California.
Growing up in Southern California, Green knew he wanted to be a doctor ever since he was 8 years old.
“I never had any doubt in my mind,” he said.
He graduated from medical school in 1980 and has been practicing in Gilroy since 1986. He first got into pulmonary and internal medicine when he did his residency in Long Beach. There, Green was able to work with one of the best pulmonary doctors around, he said.
He later went to UC Davis to pursue an academic career researching and teaching medicine, but decided it wasn’t for him. Green said he missed working with patients.
He came to Gilroy to visit a doctor he knew and, he said, ended up loving the area and sticking around. He raised his two children and three stepchildren with his wife, Lynda.
Though the politics of the medical world can be awful, Green said, it’s worth it for him to be able to take care of his patients. He said he has many memories of people he was able to help pull through at the last minute when everything was against them. He’s also had many experiences of helping a patient pass away after working with them for 30 years. He enjoys developing relationships with his patients and said they’re more like family to him – “one, big family.”
Margaret Garrettson, a nurse at St. Louise, said she likes working with Green because he’s funny and smart, but not pretentious.
“He acts like everybody else; he’s just one of us,” she said. “He treats all his patients like his friends. I’ve never seen a doctor so friendly.”
Garrettson said Green always remembers everyone’s name and really knows how to make his patients trust him. She said he even taught himself Spanish to be able to communicate better with his Spanish-speaking patients.
Ernie Filice has been Green’s patient for about 18 years. So has many of Filice’s family members, including his daughter and his mother.
“Everybody loves Dr. Green because he’s always been very involved in the community,” Filice said. “He’s your friend who’s a doctor.”
Vicki Campanella has brought her aging parents to Green for several years. When they moved to Gilroy from central California, she said her father was very concerned about switching to a new doctor. She didn’t have to worry, though, because Green and her father hit it off immediately.
Campanella’s father eventually passed away, and Green has continued to care for her Campanella’s mother, who dementia and broke her hip last October. Campanella remembers how Green worried about how certain treatments would affect her mother’s mind as well as her body.
“He’s concerned for the whole patient, not just what the condition is,” Campanella said.
Wayne Young has been a patient of Dr. Green’s for over 10 years. Young said Green is not only patient and kind, but thorough and smart. It was because of Dr. Green that Young was diagnosed with a very rare genetic lung disorder called Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. This autoimmune disorder slowly degenerates the lungs unless it is caught early and treated on a regular basis. Young had been misdiagnosed for years before Green discovered the truth.
“I’d be long dead if he hadn’t done it,” Young said. “He saved my life.”
In his career, Green has diagnosed about 18 patients with Alpha-1 antiitrypsin deficiency. Most doctors, Green said, diagnose one or two cases, if any. He said only about 8,000 people are being treated for it, and, because it is genetic, statistically there should be hundreds of thousands more. Green has since spoken at several medical conferences, with Young, and worked to raise awareness for this disease.
“Dr. Green saves people’s lives on a daily basis,” Young said, “and I’m not sure if he’s ever had a full night’s sleep.”
Young said on top of treating all his patients, Green takes one day a week and goes to the nursing homes to help out there. He tells all his patients they can call him on the phone at any time.
“He’s worked to death,” Young said. “I’m not sure how anyone works as hard as he does all the time.”
Green believes in modern medicine, which he said has increased Americans’ survival rate by 30 percent in the last 30 years. He also believes in the medical care in Gilroy, which he said boasts personal care that the patients love. He gets emotional just talking about it. It’s more than a profession to him, he says. It’s taking care of family.
