Our Patients’ Talents


Cary Wing is a friend and long time patient who wrote this touching email.

Visit www.cwingdesigns.com to see the art and feel the love.


Bullfighting Beauty

One of our favorite patients Kathy Pierce went running with the bulls at the first “running with the bulls” in Virginia.  She made it all the way to CNN.  You go girl

Kathy Runs with the bulls!


Love, Sorrow & Joy

Patient relationships are a pure joy of practice and all doctors enjoy learning about their patients and vice versa.  Since I have two special needs children, the topic of other parents with heavy hearts frequently comes into conversation.  Two compassionate people were nice enough to share their own live struggles with me in the books below.


Richmond’s own Rozlyn Papa who starred on “The Bachelor” does more than look pretty!  She has traveled to Africa and is active with the group “Flying Kites”.  This group serves Kenya’s orphaned, homeless and abused children.  Way to go Roz.


Our patient Nancy Nance is active with the Princess Anne Hunt and this group does multiple functions to benefit charities.  Below is a great cookbook from the organization that Nancy provided.


Olivia Neylan Cornell “Princess Emmalucious”

Congratulations to our patient Olivia for the release of her book.  You can see more at

www.princessemmalucious.com


Donna Deekens “Snow Queen”

Donna Deekens has a unique past as she was the long standing Snow Queen at the revered Miller & Rhoads department store in downtown Richmond, Virginia.  For those thousands of Richmonders that took their children to visit Santa at Miller & Rhoads ( a long standing Richmond tradition) the Snow Queen was a big part of this special experience.  Donna shares her memories, adventures and misadventures of this special job in her book “Memories of a Snow Queen”.

click to enlarge

…….and if one book was not enough, Donna has given us more memories with here second book “Santaland” shown below.


Peace at Home, by Edward Sando – 7th Grade

Edward is a brave young man with a tragic past. He is a native of Liberia and his family was attacked in a civil uprising. Edward lost some of his family and had to hide out in the country side for sometime. He developed a severe case of facial gangrene and was brought to this country by a Liberian angel by the name of Comfort Miller. I performed the initial surgery on Edward and Dr. John Jacobs a plastic surgeon in Virginia Beach performed a reconstruction of Edward’s nose. Edward is a brave young man who became a US citizen and has taken up art. He is obviously very talented and we believe he will become a well known artist in the future.

Our patient Cindy Patterson has assisted Hurricane Katrina victims, we are very proud of her.

Mary Ann Worsham is a brave woman with a very sad story.  Her book is truly an amazing journey of survival.  Her near death experience underlines the severity of domestic abuse.  Mary Ann has become a spokesperson for all victims or potential victims of domestic abuse and it is our honor to have her as a patient.  Dr. Niamtu is a spokesperson for Safe Harbor Women’s Shelter and his wife sits on their board.  To find out more about domestic abuse visit www.safeharbor.com

Janet Pelasara is a strong and wonderful woman.  Her daughter was abducted and murdered in a tragic incident at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Janet bravely fought for justice and endured numerous painful trials involving her daughter’s assailant.  While this tragedy would have broken many people, Janet transformed her loss into a positive situation and has become a staunch advocate for victims rights.  Janet has appeared on numerous national talk shows and written a riveting book about her experience “The Taylor Behl Story, Love you More”.  Janet’s advocacy will assist countless other families and she is a very brave woman.