A Doctor Who Helps Patients — At Any Cost

Dr. Bob Paeglow Opened His Office To People Often Ignored, And For Nothing In Return

(CBS)  By salary standards, Bob Paeglow may be the least-successful doctor in America, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America.

He's got thousands of patients, but not one country club membership. His family lives in the worst neighborhood in Albany, N.Y.

Fortunately, Paeglow didn't go into medicine for the money. He went into it — pretty late in life — because he kept having a vision of himself in old age he didn't like: "That the world was no better because I was a part of it than if I'd never been born."

At the age of 36, Bob gave up his career as a quality control technician, went to medical school and set out to improve the quality of the planet.

He opened his office in a neighborhood where most doctors wouldn't open their car door, and welcomed in all the people mainstream medicine would rather ignore. People like Belinda.

Belinda is a first-time patient. She has clinical depression — but no insurance.

"I can't in good conscience sit in front of a patient and say, 'You need this and I can't help you, get out of here.' I can't let that happen," Paeglow says. "My people are going to get what they need to the best of my ability."

In this case, that means visits with a counselor, at Paeglow's expense. In other cases, it means giving his patients not only a prescription but a check to pay for it. Not to mention that he provides a lot of non-medical care.

Lateesha has been going through a tough time lately. Her dad — one of Paeglow's patients — is fighting colon cancer. That's why the doctor prescribed a little distraction: He threw her a little birthday party.

He does this kind of thing all the time.

"One time I was in a bind and I wasn't able to purchase Christmas for my son and he purchased Christmas for my son," a patient says. He bought him a new coat, new gloves, and a race track.

"Dr. Bob's my heart," she adds. "He is."

Paeglow takes absolutely no salary and survives mostly on donations, reports Hartman. But even when people give him money for him, he usually plugs it right back into the practice. Every penny he makes goes back to his patients in one way or another.

Does that make him the least-successful doctor in America? Or the most?

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If you would like to donate to Koinonia Primary Care, checks may be made payable to:

Compassion in Action/Koinonia Primary Care

And should be mailed to:

Koinonia Primary Care
Attention: Dr. Robert Paeglow
553 Clinton Avenue
Albany, NY 12206

Or, go to the website: Dr. Bob Cares and click on donations.

[jessjon1]

Thank you for doing a story about this wonderful doctor. My sister has worked with him while in medical school and just can not stop talking about him.

Thank you
Curt

[keatinkp]

While he might be great to patients, he is not so great to staff. A nurse practitioner, who is trying to update her skills and get back into treating patients, happens to have bilateral leg braces and crutches. He agreed to have her work FREE in his office to rehone her skills. When he sees a patient with her, he sits and makes her stand. There are times she stands for 6 hours while he sits. He obviously is trying to make her quit, so why did he agree to let her work there? There are other places who would LOVE to have her help. As an NP I can tell you that a person does not need to be able to walk well; they can be in a wheel chair. It is their mind you need not their legs. Be careful who you canonize as a saint; there may be sides of them that you would prefer not to see.

Kathleen Keating, RN, MSN , CPNP-PC, CNS/DD

One of most heartfull articals on. Can you go ongoiing with articals on Dr. Bob Paeglow.
thanks
Rev. Bob LaBri

[tammychapin]

I just saw the segment on Dr. Bob and I'm still drying my eyes. Thank God for people like this in the world. It gives hope! I just hope others were fortunate enough to see this and know where to look if they want to donate to his cause.
Thank you!

[spankyo1]

Dear keatinkp-
If there are other places that would love to have your friend work with them while she updates her skills, that is where she should go. There is no reason to stay somewhere if she feels that she is treated unfairly.

Healthcare is full of people who are in it only for the money and the ego. I know, because I am also in healthcare. I see it everyday. The young kids coming out of residency that feel they have already "paid their dues" and expect to be elevated to diety status when they have done nothing but complete the training they chose for the profession. When you see someone that is willing to give up a large salary and help others it is refreshing.

[gce65]

What a fabulous story! And what a great, selfless, and absolutely necessary individual Dr. Bob Paeglow is. His wish that the world should be a better place because of his existence has been fulfilled, in my mind, even if just in his own neighborhood.
Ironically, and in glaringly stark contrast, the lead-off stories immediately following this on another "entertainment news" show were about Lyndsey Lohan leaving rehab for the day to shop and to pick up her $100K+ car, and about Anne Heche cheating on her husband with her TV show co-actor. How completely trivial they seem compared to Dr. Bob.

[gce65]

What a fabulous story! And what a great, selfless, and absolutely necessary individual Dr. Bob Paeglow is. His wish that the world should be a better place because of his existence has been fulfilled, in my mind, even if just in his own neighborhood.
Ironically, and in glaringly stark contrast, the lead-off stories immediately following this on another "entertainment news" show were about Lyndsey Lohan leaving rehab for the day to shop and to pick up her $100K+ car, and about Anne Heche cheating on her husband with her TV show co-actor. How completely trivial they seem compared to Dr. Bob.

[gce65]

What a fabulous story! And what a great, selfless, and absolutely necessary individual Dr. Bob Paeglow is. His wish that the world should be a better place because of his existence has been fulfilled, in my mind, even if just in his own neighborhood.
In stark contrast, the lead-off stories right after this on an "entertainment news" show were about Lyndsey Lohan leaving rehab for the day to shop and to pick up her $100K+ car, and Anne Heche cheating on her husband with her TV co-actor. How completely trivial.

[alyosha55]

This was hugely inspiring to me, and brought tears to my eyes. Although I am in my early 50s, I've been thinking about going to medical school and doing something similar to Dr Paeglow, but have been wary about it given my age. Believe it or not, I woke up hearing a voice in my head saying that "you don't want to listen to ABC news" - the station I usually get news from. I absent mindedly heeded this voice later in the day when I tuned to your news broadcast. I am so glad I did. It's very obvious to me that I received guidance toward viewing this story. Thanks again for airing it.

[ncmfkon251]

I only dream of having a Dr. like him. I hope his story will inspire others to follow in his footsteps. Thank you Dr. Bob

[drbobfan]

I am so happy that a story was done on such a fantastic man - Dr. Bob. He is everything this story says and so much more! To the person who says that he was not good to a staff person - I say check your facts. I have, in the 15 years I have worked with him, never seen Dr. Bob treat ANY person, a patient, a staff person, a student or a stranger without anything but dignity and respect. Black, white, rich or poor - his door and his heart is always open. Go to drbobcares.org and you can read letters from people he has inspired and helped. I hope more people will follow Dr. Bob's story so he can continue working miracles!

[falcore1]

I travel to Canada and have many friends there, and health cost is something they never have to think of with one third of their tax dollars going to health care. They say health is a right not a privilege.And people who knock their system and say it is inferior are the corporations who would have the most to lose . If I had a loved one dying from a treatable illness,and was denied treatment, I would emigrate to Canada since the US is making billions off of health with no regard to the uninsured. Getting sick is the leading cause of bankruptcy in this country. Trillions of dollars are wasted on a futile war that will accomplish nothing, yet here in this country, people with cancer are sent home with aspirin.Why do we tolerate it?

[jpj117]

It was great to hear a story about a physician like Dr. Bob. He is truly an inspiration.

I also went to medical school later in life (I'm in my 2nd year of med school & almost 40 y.o.) and have found, on average, that older students tend to care more about the underserved population than the younger students do.

As older students tend to gravitate more toward primary care, younger students tend to steer more toward surgery, because they want to "make a lot of money".

I live in Philadelphia, PA and when some of the inner-city patients come into the clinic, a lot of the younger students seem disgusted or bothered with them. When are they going to learn that not everyone can be a plastic surgeon living in Beverly Hills.

Myself, I plan on going into primary care, and I'm also under obligation to the U.S. Army. So undoubtably I'll get to put my skills to the test in the Middle East.

Maybe you should do a story on non-traditional medical students some day.