Couple give back to school that produces ‘physicians who have caring hearts'

Couple give back to school that produces ‘physicians who have caring hearts'

For Class of 1991 alumni Rafael Villalobos, D.O., and Letetia Villalobos, D.O., their marriage was a match made at WVSOM.

“We met in the old anatomy lab,” said Rafael, now a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Mansfield, Ohio. “Letetia was reading from Grant’s Dissection Manual for her table, which was next to mine. She had a beautiful Southern accent, so I said, ‘Why don’t you come and read for us?’ She said, ‘Not on your life, Yankee.’ I said, ‘I’m not a Yankee. I’m from Colombia, South America. I’m from further south than any of your relatives.’ She said, ‘I’m from Columbia, too,’ because she was from Columbia, Mississippi. That started us off, and we became good friends and study partners.”

By their third and fourth years of medical school, the two were completing rotations together. WVSOM’s Statewide Campus system wasn’t in place yet, and in one 11-month period, Letetia said, the pair rotated in 10 different states. They learned about cardiothoracic surgery at Texas’ Baylor University, studied radiology at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, and even worked for two months in Anchorage, Alaska, through the Indian Health Service, a federal health program for native Americans and Alaska natives.

They married at the end of their internship year and entered residencies at Doctors Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, with Rafael focusing on general surgery — a prerequisite for physicians who want to subspecialize in plastic and reconstructive surgery — and Letetia concentrating on radiology.

Letetia had started college as a psychology major, but switched to a pre-med program at Mississippi State University after finding fulfillment in her job working in an emergency room.

“I was a late bloomer, and I was intrigued by medicine but wanted to put my feet in the water a little. A physician hired me as his scribe, and I would go with him to see patients. He would dictate and I would write everything on his charts. I got to know a lot of the doctors, and a D.O. practicing on the Mississippi Gulf Coast told me about WVSOM, and I applied and was accepted,” she said.

Letetia went on to practice as a diagnostic radiologist in the Columbus area, specializing in outpatient breast imaging, before retiring to homeschool the couple’s two children. She said the specialty appealed to her because it allows for a variety of lifestyles and because it lets physicians master a single field of practice.

“It’s something you can do full time or part time, and it was important to me to have a family, too,” she said. “And I’m a perfectionist, so I wanted to be really good at something specific rather than have a broad knowledge of all kinds of diseases. Also, it’s a privilege to be the first person to see something you know to be a breast cancer and be in a sacred space with these women before they have to make life-changing decisions.”

Rafael, a University of Maryland graduate, first visited WVSOM as part of a two-week summer program designed to introduce minority populations to osteopathic medicine. After earning his medical degree, he completed a general surgery residency at Doctors Hospital and a plastic and reconstructive surgery fellowship at the Ohio State University before establishing a private practice in Columbus.

He eventually created a plastic and reconstructive surgery residency at Doctors Hospital and became a full-time faculty member at Ohio State, where he was the first D.O. in the surgery department.

He now operates a practice in Mansfield, Ohio, just north of Columbus, and continues to serve as a preceptor to medical students from Ohio State. Specializing in plastic and reconstructive surgery, he said, champions creativity and gives physicians exposure to a variety of conditions.

“There’s a strong artistic aspect to it,” Rafael said. “I always say there are two types of plastic surgeons: engineers and artists. Engineers are always drawing on people and measuring twice, while artists have their own perspective and find novel ways to attack a problem and approach a solution. Thinking outside the box is common in plastic and reconstructive surgery, whereas in other surgical disciplines, it’s about staying in your lane.”

The Villalobos family has been generous in giving back to the medical school that allowed them to build a life together and prepared them for successful careers. More than a decade ago, they contributed to the Capital Campaign that helped fund the expansion of WVSOM’s Clinical Evaluation Center (CEC). An advanced cardiac life support room in the CEC is named for the couple.

Rafael and Letetia also donated to the Alumni Tower campaign, purchased an engraved bench on the school’s campus, participated in the WVSOM Alumni Association’s “Take a Seat” campaign and have supported the association’s scholarship fund, which provides financial awards to students who exemplify scholarship, osteopathic professional interest, leadership and citizenship.

Rafael said the impetus for their financial support of WVSOM was the feeling of camaraderie the school fosters and that some larger institutions lack.

“WVSOM has a special place in our lives. It’s where we met and it gave us the opportunity to become physicians. But WVSOM also has a unique place within the structure of medical education. We both went to large universities, so we knew they can feel impersonal, and when we came here we fell in love with Lewisburg and with the school’s small-class, family atmosphere,” he said.

He acknowledged that the couple’s career paths aren’t the same as those of many other WVSOM graduates, given that primary care is a part of the school’s stated mission.

“I joke about the fact that WVSOM focuses on producing family practice physicians for rural Appalachia, and I’m a failure in that I’m a subspecialist in a metropolitan area. But I love my career choice, and even though Letetia and I are specialists, we recognize how the school has transformed health care in West Virginia,” Rafael said.

“It’s a privilege to help an institution that is producing a high-level product — physicians who have caring hearts — and I invite all alumni to embrace that privilege and join us in giving. I want to make sure the school not only survives, but thrives.”

When we came here we fell in love with Lewisburg and with the school’s small-class, family atmosphere,” Rafael said.