DR. SANJAY GUPTA BRINGS HEALTH ADVICE TO THE LOWCOUNTRY, VISITS VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE
Bringing advice for a long and healthy life, celebrity neurosurgeon and medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited Hilton Head Island on Feb. 11 as part of the new Lowcountry Speaker Series. He also stopped in at Volunteers in Medicine Hilton Head Island Clinic.
Gupta has won multiple Emmy awards for his work as CNN’s chief medical correspondent. He is a practicing neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital and the associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
Before his evening lecture at Marriott Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa, he took at tour of VIM Hilton Head Island and chatted with volunteers and staff.
“VIM was thrilled to share our work with Dr. Gupta, and we appreciate his broad global experiences in health care,” said Dr. Ray Cox, the clinic’s executive director. “I was particularly impressed with his insight and wisdom in understanding the limitations of our medical care system.”
At VIM, Gupta also talked about the importance of emotional factors in health outcomes like gratitude and caring, which are hard to measure.
VIM is staffed with retired medical personnel and community volunteers who provide free medical care and patient education for the uninsured and medically underserved. The Volunteers in Medicine organization, which started on Hilton Head in the early 1990s, has since grown on a national scale, with nearly 100 clinics currently open across the U.S.
Gupta’s visit to the Hilton Head clinic was part of Lowcountry Speaker Series founder James Lamar’s mission to broaden community participation with the series, provide platforms for community conversation, and promote life-long learning.
In his talk at the Marriott, Gupta shared his experience with health care systems and practices around the world, including lessons about diet, activity and rest he learned from the Tsimane, an indigenous tribe in Bolivia whose members rarely develops heart disease. Gupta also participated in a question-and-answer session.
The Lowcountry Speaker Series, presented in partnership with the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, is halfway through its inaugural season; the final two speakers are National Geographic photographer and marine biologist Paul Nicklen on March 10 and Robert O’Neill, former SEAL Team Six leader and author of the New York Times best-selling memoir “The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden,” on April 7.
Season subscriptions and individual lecture tickets are still available. Donations are also being accepted through the Lowcountry Speaker Series – Our Doors Are Always Open charitable fund, which provides free tickets to educators, students, veterans, first responders and volunteers. For more information, go to www.lowcountryspeakerseries.com.
