Disease is a doctor's No. 1 enemy, right?
Not so fast, says Dr. Tomas Magana.
Dr. Magana says, like most physicians, he began his career believing that treating illnesses would be the way he would save his patients lives. But then Dr. Magana, a pediatrician, began practicing medicine in inner-city Oakland.
"The leading cause of death for adolescents is trauma, followed by homicide, followed by suicide," Dr. Magana says. "That's very hard for a pediatrician, because I'm trained for pathology."
Dr. Magana soon realized if he was going to save lives, he would have to broaden the ways he did it. So in 2000 he started what is now the Faces For The Future Coalition.
To see what Faces does, and how Dr. Magana uses his own personal story to inspire young, at-risk teens, watch Garvin Thomas' story above.
