{"id":446469,"date":"2025-05-14T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=446469"},"modified":"2025-05-14T14:52:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T14:52:53","slug":"circle-of-kindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=446469","title":{"rendered":"Circle of kindness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Army Veteran Timothy Sanders travels over two hours each way to get his health care at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center <\/a>in Houston, Texas. While he knows there are VA clinics closer to his home and he dreads Houston\u2019s big-city traffic, his special connection with his VA cardiologist, Dr. Steve Antoine, makes the trip worthwhile.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/a>
Army Veteran Timothy Sanders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

As a young Army infantry soldier in the 1990s, Sanders deployed to Port-au-Prince, Haiti<\/a>, with the 82nd Airborne Division to provide aid and protection. He vividly remembers meeting with local children, often giving them snacks and a kind word as they passed by.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wondered what happened to the smiling little kids we interacted with on our humanitarian mission,\u201d he said. \u201cThey really touched my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Steve Antoine was one of those kids. Growing up in Haiti, Antoine says he always had a special respect for the military and recalls meeting the friendly American soldiers as a middle school student.<\/p>\n

Kindness of soldiers<\/h2>\n

\u201cTalking with them helped me practice my English,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cTheir kindness made a lasting impression on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Antoine moved to the U.S. as a high school senior, his passion for math and physics guided him toward a medical career.<\/p>\n

Today, he is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular nuclear medicine and echocardiography. He is also a professor of medicine\u2013cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine.<\/p>\n

One of his first patients at Houston VA was Timothy Sanders.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Main<\/a>
Dr. Steve Antoine, VA cardiologist, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI enjoy learning about Veterans\u2019 stories and the incredible things they\u2019ve accomplished,\u201d Antoine said. \u201cWhile talking with Mr. Sanders during a follow-up appointment, we discovered that we were both in the same place at the same time and likely interacted when I was a young boy in Haiti. I remember the kindness of the soldiers there, and I\u2019m honored to be in a position today to give back by being his cardiologist.\u201d<\/p>\n

After leaving the military, Sanders moved back to Texas and worked in the oilfields.\u00a0He first met Dr. Antoine at the Houston VA when he sought care for breathing issues.\u00a0He said he was immediately struck by Antoine\u2019s caring and professional demeanor. Later, both men were astonished to uncover their shared history.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we realized our connection, we sat in silence for several minutes, lost in our memories,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cDr. Antoine told me that the soldiers he met in Haiti inspired him to come to our country and ultimately care for Veterans. It was incredibly humbling to know we made that kind of a difference in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Sanders prepares for a potential heart transplant in the coming months, Antoine pledges to be there with him every step of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bond I share with Mr. Sanders transcends the typical patient-doctor relationship; it\u2019s really about the power of compassion and resilience,\u201d Antoine said. \u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to repay just a fraction of the genuine kindness he showed during my childhood by providing him with exceptional health care at the Houston VA.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Army Veteran Timothy Sanders travels over two hours each way to get his health care at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas. While he knows there are VA clinics closer to his home and he dreads Houston\u2019s big-city traffic, his special connection with his VA cardiologist, Dr. Steve Antoine, makes the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":446471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1544,5,1267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haiti","category-health","category-visn-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=446469"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446482,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446469\/revisions\/446482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/446471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=446469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=446469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=446469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}