Tough Replacement

When Lee Health executive Jim Nathan says he has worked all his life in health care, he's going all the way back to when he was a shy and pudgy second-grader.

Back then, in Ohio and New York in the 1950s, Nathan says his dad was a “professional patient,” with a laundry list of medical obstacles that included tuberculosis. Nathan would visit his dad in the tuberculosis-only hospital, but due to a quarantine, the closest son got to father was climbing a pine tree outside the window to glance into the room.

Around that time, Nathan picked up some health care volunteer work. He told children's stories on shortwave radios that were beamed into the tuberculosis rooms. In third grade, he did fundraising for the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association.