Dr. Carmen Lazala is a pediatric endocrinologist. Her patients are children from vulnerable families in New York. Most have limited resources but know that they have a doctor who is willing to attend them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. She’s a member of SOMOS.
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Dr. Lazala is of Hispanic origin and lives in New York. She graduated in 2002, and in these almost 20 years of medical practice she has seen thousands of children. Her specialization in pediatric endocrinology is focused on hormonal pathologies: diabetes, obesity, thyroid problems, menstrual irregularities…
Her work has a strong vocational component. “Ever since I was a child,” she says, “I imagined myself as a doctor. I felt called to that vocation since I was four years old; that was my goal and my interest in life.”
Listening to children
She treats children “as if they were my own. I feel that motherhood is one of the virtues that drives me in my life. I like to see others with compassion, with love, with sweetness, with protection. Every day when I see my patients, I give their parents the opportunity to tell me what their children have, but I always put love first.”
“I feel,” the doctor adds, “that the patient is already being cured when you give him a hug, when you listen to him with interest.”
“My phone is always available to my patients.”
“My patients have my phone number for any kind of questions they may have, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, wherever I am in the world. My phone is available. They’re very respectful because I always warn them, ‘Text me or send e message by WhatsApp first,’ and then I answer or call if necessary. I’m available to them and they treat their relationship with me with a lot of respect.”
“Through medicine I can help others.”
For her, her professional work has a strong human component: “I feel that through my medical career I can help my neighbor. Since my childhood, I’ve been influenced by the philosophy of St. Francis of Assisi. He’s my favorite saint. I see him as the saint of humility, of love… the saint for helping others and all the people of this earth.”
Dr. Lazala is a member of the SOMOS network of doctors, who care for vulnerable individuals and families in New York City. Like 2,000 other professionals, she helps ensure that health care reaches everyone, including those who cannot afford it.
