NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - American Dreaming with José Díaz-Balart: Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

Famed Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa talks to José Díaz-Balart about his upbringing in Baja California, Mexico. Moving from migrant farmworker to Harvard Medical School, he founded the non-profit Mission: BRAIN to provide care to patients in underserved areas of the world.

What does the American dream mean to you, doctor? I tell you, to me, it means being able to touch a life, being able to wake up every day and knowing that I have an ability and a sort of an opportunity to help someone. Alfredo Quiñones Hinojosa, Dr. Q, neurosurgeon in front of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. What an honor it is, Dr. Q, as everyone refers to you as, to be able to have an opportunity to chat with you. Jose, the honor is mine. You have a life story that really distills the American dream and what it means to be able to achieve your dreams in such an extraordinary way. I mean, doctor, let's talk about your upbringing. You know, it was humble. It was very humble beginnings in my life. I grew up in a small little town outside of Mexicali, Mexico. Mexicali is in the state of Baja California. It's extraordinarily hot in the summertime. Really, no running water, no electricity. But you know what we had, Jose, was an amazing ability to dream.

How do you go from that to dream big dreams? What were you basing those dreams on? Right here, right in your brain, in my brain, a hundred billion neurons firing all the time, making about 160 trillion synapses. Right now, as we were talking, there are more synapses ongoing in your brain than there are stars in the galaxy. So we're all, you know, born with this extraordinary ability to dream. You know, when I grew up in Mexico, very poor, we never had access to healthcare. My little sister died when I was just three years old. I have those memories. She died of diarrhea, dehydration. Then I came to the United States and I saw what it was like to work

in the fields. You know, the same field that Cesar Chavez worked on, you know, 30, 40 years prior and tried to change it. And I saw how invisible one human being can be to the rest of the world. I saw how my parents, by the way, who are very humble, who live now here in the United States, how they sometimes have been treated by some healthcare providers. And I always told myself, if I am blessed one day as a leader, as a physician, as a surgeon, you know, all my patients are going to be treated the way that I would like my loved ones to be treated. And that's it. It's that simple. And then when you're 19, you take this step, which is the step that so many people have taken over the generations, a dangerous, uncertain step of crossing into the United States. You had no documents. You only had a dream.

And you actually climbed that fence like Spider-Man to get over and get into the United States. And you were stopped when you first got here. My uncle, my mom's brother, the very first Bracero, who at age 17, had left Mexico at age 17 to, you know, build the future. He was truly an inspiration for me. When we were going through those difficult times in Mexico, I mean, he used to come from the United States and bring us a sack of potatoes, beans, things like that. By 1986, 87, you know, the only way to come across was as an undocumented migrant farm worker. And I had a dream that one day somewhere along this journey, I was going to be able to do something meaningful on behalf of humanity. And I ended up crossing and hopping that fence in that journey in which so many people continue to die even today.

You were sent back to Mexico, but that didn't dissuade you? No, this is what Cesar Chavez said once. The ability to be successful is two things. An extraordinary resilience and number two, the extraordinary capacity to dream and dream big. Dr. Q, because, you know, quite frankly, you didn't have the background to really dream of one day being a neurosurgeon. In those jobs that you took, you start developing a road map for what your life could be like. Who could have thought that the things that I did when I first came to the United States, the simple job of picking tomatoes. I started picking with my hands.

I ended up over the course of about a year to way because there were all kinds of blades managing this machinery. And I was managing this and had a crew working in these tomato pickers, you know. And now, presently, the way I sit in the operating room and you've seen it probably in television, most recently through this series that came out in Netflix. You see me in my microscope sitting with my mouth, you know, connected to the microscope, connected to the patient, manipulating everything through my hands and my feet and doing surgery. So some of those early skills, mechanical skills, as well as the perseverance of not giving up, of knowing that no matter how challenging the job may be, there is someone who will benefit from what you're doing today. In my case today is, of course, the surgery that I do on behalf of my patients. Back then, I knew that my

job mattered, that what I was doing as a migrant farm worker was putting food on the table of people in the world. How do you go from Piscar Tomates to graduating from Harvard and then being able to save lives by almost having an impact on the human brain. What was your moment? The first thing that happened to me is when I was in community college, realizing that no one in my family had ever gone to school or university, even community college. And I realized that as beautiful as this country is, and as much of a land of opportunity can be hard and sometimes it can bring you down on your knees and there are sometimes you're just going to stay down on your knees and never going to be able to get up and i was not willing to take that fight on my knees i needed to stand up again and come back after that april 14 1989 i ended up going to community college, not really knowing. I found myself going to UC Berkeley, struggling to make ends meet.

But somehow, you know, by another mentor who one day tells me, with the grades that you have, the things that you have done, you can go to Harvard. And there was something, a little light bulb almost turned on. But I said, nah, he's crazy. So he ends up helping me. And there we are a few years later when I was a second year Harvard medical student. When I was on my way to the library to study on a Friday night. And here is a very famous brain surgeon coming towards the operating room.

And I'm going through the hospital, the Brigham and Women's Hospital. And he asked me, have you ever seen brain surgery? And I said, no, sir. And he goes, would you like to see brain surgery? And I'm thinking he's going to invite me in the future and say, yes, I'd love to. I said, let's do it. That night, Jose, I end up in the operating room and I saw the brain going like this, dancing with the heart from the side. And I saw the patient awake. And in one view, I see the face and the brain going like this and the patient doing all kinds of functions. And I had that moment. Wow, humans can do this.

And you know what the most beautiful thing that I realized? How can it be possible that that human is willing to put his or her life on the hands of someone else. That to me was the epiphany, that people can actually do that and can give you that gift. You spent so much time on other things to help other people. You founded Mission Brain. So what is Mission Brain?

Mission Brain, I think, is an amazing not-for-profit organization in which we treat, we educate, and we empower those around the world to be able to care for some of the poorest people with some of the most complex, extraordinarily dangerous brain disorders, whether it's brain tumors, vascular malformations, spine tumors. And we go around the world. We've been in places like Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti, the Philippines, in which we provide care, free care.

And we bring some of the top brain surgeons from the United States together. We don't pay them a cent. We just go there. We work together. And we partner with the local surgeons. Because at the end of the day, we're there to share our knowledge. And we do some of the most extraordinarily complex brain surgery. What does the American dream mean to you, doctor? I tell you, to me, it means being able to touch a life,

being able to wake up every day and knowing that I have an ability and a sort of an opportunity to help someone. It was interesting. If you had asked me the American dream back in 1987, I would have told you the American dream is to buy a pair of high top Nikes and a pair of Ray-Bans. But you see, life takes us through an amazing journey. Now the American dream, I get to wear nice clothes. I get to, you know, travel around the world. Now it's that simple. Do I have the ability to touch someone else's life?

That to me is what an American dream means today. Have you achieved your American dream, doctor? I like to believe that it is a constant progress because if you ask me five years from now, maybe it's going to be different. I say that as of today, I am very happy with the dreams that I have achieved. But if you ask me what my dreams are going to be tomorrow. It's going to be much more challenging to tell you. Doctor, what would you tell that little boy that had no idea of what a beautiful future could mean? What would you tell that little boy if you could talk to him? Very simple. Take it easy.

Enjoy the moment. I realize that in my desire to achieve and help people, I also have, you know, spent less time with my parents, with my siblings, with my own children. It's the price of triumph. It's ironic that sometimes you take time away from those you love to give others time with their loved ones. And it is sadness. So I would tell that little boy, pace yourself. You don't have to be a full professor in five years at Johns Hopkins. You don't have to be the William and Charles Mayo professor at the Mayo Clinic. There may be a way for you to pace yourself and maybe spend a little bit more time with those around you who love you. And I'm trying to do that a little bit better. You know, hopefully I'll achieve that.

Dr. Rafael Quiñones, that's been a real treat and a privilege to speak with you. Gracias, Jose.