PROFILES
N O RT H W E S T A R K A N S A S
D
Copyright © 2012, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
ON THE WEB: www.nwaonline.com
∂ ∂
SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 2012
Dr. Victor Francisco Coloso
Baby booster
SELF
PORTRAIT
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RYAN McGEENEY
“I don’t really set specific goals. I just give it 100 percent and do what I think is the right thing, not what
people think is the right thing but what I think is the right thing and what I can do about it.”
F
ORT SMITH — Dr. Victor Coloso couldn’t
handle a regular job.
Coloso was working in beautiful West
Palm Beach, Fla., as part of a neonatal
medical group where he helped care for premature
babies as tiny as 15 ounces as they struggled first to
survive, and then thrive.
It was fulfilling work, the culmination of a lifetime of tireless studying, and yet there was something unsatisfying about the whole thing. He didn’t
want to be an employee, someone who worked
until his shift ended and then went home while his
tiny patients languished inside incubators.
“We were stable and settled, and all of a sudden
he woke up and said, ‘I need to find a small town
so I can do more, do something in the community
to make a difference to the lives of the children,’”
says his wife, Regina Coloso.
In 2006, Victor Coloso received a mass-mailing
from a hospital in Fort Smith. Babies born around
32 weeks or earlier in the state’s second-largest
city were often being transported to Arkansas
Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, and the people
who ran St. Edward Mercy Medical Center were
planning to do something about it.
RICH POLIKOFF
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Specifically, plans were in the works to launch a
neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at St. Edward,
and the Fort Smith-based hospital needed a neonatologist. Coloso had never been to Fort Smith, but
decided to call the vice president of the hospital
anyhow.
What he heard over the phone convinced him
to fly in for an interview, and in November 2006,
he became the medical director of the NICU at St.
Edward.
“He’s far exceeded our expectations,” says Dr.
Larry Pearce of Fort Smith, an executive at the hospital who interviewed Coloso. “His commitment to
be there 24/7 when necessary has been unbelievable.”
Coloso threw himself into his position at the
hospital. He made only one request of his office,
that it have a couch, and he used it frequently to
get a little sleep when he would go two, three, even
four days without leaving the hospital. (Regina
would take him food and a change of clothes during these multiday shifts.)
And yet he discovered he wasn’t the only one
sleeping at St. Edward. There were parents of children in the unit who were sleeping in their cars
and in the waiting room, too frightened to go home,
too poor to afford a hotel or even a decent meal.
Coloso vowed he would do something for these
families. He contacted Ronald McDonald House
Charities of Arkoma in Springdale and said they
needed to visit his hospital.
When its executives hesitated, Coloso called
back and insisted they come as soon as possible.
“He literally said, ‘You need to get down here
and take care of my babies,’” recalls Stephanie
Medford of Springdale, the executive director of
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkoma.
It was because of Coloso’s determination to do
better for the families of his tiny patients that the
Ronald McDonald Family Room opened inside the
hospital on Dec. 8, 2010. Located a floor above the
NICU, it is a luxury suite where families of hospitalized children stay, sleep, eat and relax, free of
charge.
The family room has four bedrooms, a fully
stocked kitchen and living room, plus a dining room
that was named after Coloso and his wife after they
Date and place
of birth: Nov. 2,
1960, in Quezon
City, Philippines
Occupation:
Medical director
of the Neonatal
Intensive Care
Unit at St. Edward
Mercy Medical
Center
Family: Wife
Regina, daughters
Nina and Regine
Victoria, son
Patrick
One thing I’d
like to do more
is traveling to
different countries.
I’d like to learn
more about the
culture and history
of different parts
of the world.
The best thing
about being a
doctor is that it
is a very noble
profession
where one has
the opportunity
to use the gift
of being able
to heal people
from physical
and emotional
ailments.
My favorite TV
show is The
Golden Girls. I
think it is hilarious.
What stands out
about my office is
a picture frame
with the sun and
a skydiver and
reads, “INSPIRE:
Many people
have gone
further than they
imagined they
could because
somebody else
thought they
could.”
If I had an extra
hour each day
I would spend
time with my wife
and children, as
I have not been
able to spend the
time I wanted to
because of the
demands of my
current position.
The best advice I
ever received was
“If you are good,
you will shine.”
My favorite
movie is The Ten
Commandments.
One word to sum
me up: dedicated
See COLOSO, Page 2D
SPOTLIGHT FORT SMITH REGIONAL ART MUSEUM
Party to help museum
finally get the picture
RICH POLIKOFF
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
FORT SMITH — The
transformation is nearly
complete.
The Fort Smith Regional
Art Museum recently set
Jan. 19 as the opening date,
and now it’s in the process
of figuring out what will
fill its gallery spaces when
it opens. The museum is being designed with versatility in mind.
“What’s going to happen
is that every time we have a
new show, we’ll change the
configuration of the walls,”
says the museum’s executive director, Lee Ortega.
“So the idea is every time
[people come] to the museum, they’ll have a different experience.”
In a sense, the museum
dates back more than 60
years, to its founding under
the auspices of the Arkansas Association of University Women in 1948. Starting
in the 1960s, the Fort Smith
Art Center was in a house
in the Belle Grove historic
district.
The center’s space was
a place where local artists could come together,
show their work and offer
classes. But the old house
had limitations because of
its size and lack of climate
control.
The desire for a new facility existed for years, but
the Fort Smith Regional
Art Museum didn’t really
come into focus until 2009,
when Arvest Bank donated
a 16,000-square-foot building at 1601 Rogers Ave.
The two-story building
doesn’t look much like a
bank anymore. There will
be two large galleries in
the museum, one on each
floor, as well as spaces for
offices and classes. Ortega
adds that the basement will
be large enough to handle
See ORTEGA, Page 2D
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RYAN McGEENEY
Lee Ortega is the executive director of the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum. The museum will be
having a White Party fundraiser May 18.
2D v SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 2012
∂ ∂
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RYAN McGEENEY
“I was a do-or-die kind of person. I had to give it my all, just like I do now. When I do something, I have to give it
my best.”
Education, empathy at top of Coloso’s resume
v COLOSO, continued from 1D
made a sizable donation to
its construction. It is the only Ronald McDonald Family
Room for families of hospitalized children in the state,
Medford says.
In recognition of his tireless efforts, Dr. Coloso was
given the first Lily Award during the 2011 Red Shoe Shindig,
a fundraiser in October that
benefited the family room.
“He has stayed passionate about [the family room],”
Medford says. “He’s so proud
of it; he’s always giving tours
of it.
“Here’s a cool story not a
lot of people know: That first
Christmas [in 2010], there
was a family staying with us
that had a baby in the NICU.
He actually came up and
ate Christmas dinner with
them.”
they possessed a strong belief in the power of education.
Coloso’s parents stressed that
school was the one chance
the children had to better
themselves, so they needed
to take it seriously.
His father died when
Coloso was 13. Yet even in
the years that followed, his
mother, Ramona, made sure
that nothing distracted Victor
from his studies. She worked
multiple jobs as a seamstress
so her youngest child didn’t
have to work, and could instead focus on his studies.
“Whatever he does, he’s
a perfectionist,” says Regina
Coloso. “That comes from his
family, seeing my mother-inlaw do hard work. She was a
perfectionist, too; she always
made sure her dresses were
perfect, and everything in her
house was clean.”
POOR AND ‘LUCKY’
SEVEN GRADUATES
The idea for the family
room, Coloso says, came from
those weary parents he saw
sleeping on the floor of his
hospital.
He remembers one in
particular who hadn’t left the
hospital in two days.
“It’s one of those moments
where it brings back memories of where you come from,”
Coloso says, choking up. “You
really don’t want to see that.
[I thought] ‘Oh my God, we
have to do something.’”
Seeing a parent sleeping
on the floor of the waiting
room reminded Coloso of his
childhood, in which he had
slept on the floor of his family’s house in Quezon City,
the most populous city in the
Philippines. He calls it a twobedroom house, although it
was really just one large room
with a divider in it.
Coloso shared this small
space with his parents and six
older siblings. They all slept
under mosquito nets, with
just a straw mat for comfort.
When Coloso was 11 ,
President Ferdinand Marcos
declared martial law in the
Philippines, severely curtailing personal freedoms. It remained in place for more than
eight years.
“There were soldiers
roaming the streets and
tanks,” Coloso recalls. “You
weren’t allowed to be out after midnight.
“It’s a very oppressive society. You’re not allowed to
talk, or you’ll face the consequences. There’s no freedom
of the press, no freedom of
speech under martial law.”
In spite of these obstacles,
Coloso insists he was “kinda
lucky.” The one thing the Coloso children had were opportunities to better themselves.
The family lacked a refrigerator, telephone or a car, but
All seven of the Coloso
children graduated from college. Victor says he benefited
from his older siblings’ assistance, a tradition in his home
country, and by the time he
graduated from high school
with honors in 1978, his
mother had emigrated to the
United States.
Coloso considered following her to the United States,
but when he got into the
prestigious University of The
Philippines, he decided to
stay. It’s an excellent school,
he says, “somewhat equated
to Harvard.”
Before he began, one of
his brothers told Coloso that
whatever profession he chose,
he needed to stick with it.
The family didn’t have money for him to jump between
majors.
Having loved science as a
child, he chose medicine.
“We struggled but managed,” says Coloso’s sister,
Julie Sales of Vancouver,
British Columbia. “Education
was on the top of our list; our
parents were determined everyone should graduate from
college.”
Coloso hoped to continue
through medical school at the
University of The Philippines,
but the odds against that were
high. Out of the thousands
who applied for admission in
1982, only 150 made it — 75
men and 75 women.
Coloso earned a bachelor
of science in zoology, choosing zoology because it was so
tough. When he earned honors and scored high on his entrance exams, it was enough
to get him into University
of The Philippines’ medical
school.
He admits he didn’t have a
backup plan.
“I was a do-or-die kind
of person,” he says. “I had to
give it my all, just like I do
now. When I do something, I
have to give it my best.”
ed States in 1986, spending
two years working in a clinic
and pharmacy in California
before returning to the Philippines.
He spent a year doing a
rotating internship at Philippine General Hospital, a
government hospital where
he dealt with everyone from
newborns to geriatrics.
“Victor has always wanted
to help people,” Sales says.
“[During his internship] the
people had no money, nothing. Victor would use his own
money to buy patients food
and clean needles.”
It was during Coloso’s internship that he discovered
his passion, working with
newborns. After returning to
the United States, he went to
Monmouth Medical Center
(Long Branch, N.J.), followed
by a neonatal fellowship at
the University of Miami.
“It’s very good that [St.
Edward] has him, because he
is so thorough in his assessment of his patients,” says Dr.
Lerma Te, who worked with
Coloso at Pediatrics Medical
Group in West Palm Beach,
Fla., where he worked from
1998-2006. “He’s a very good
clinician as well.”
Te says that Coloso possesses an exceptional bedside
manner, something echoed by
Alycia Jackson, the respiratory therapy supervisor for
the NICU at St. Edward.
BETTER PRACTICES
Parents whose babies are
Coloso moved to the Unit- in the unit are terrified, Jack-
son says. Coloso is passionate
about parents understanding what is happening, and
wants them to be involved in
the decision-making process
— as much as this is possible
— so he is never curt when
asked to explain something
one more time to frightened
parents.
“It doesn’t matter what
level you are, what amount of
education you have or where
you come from, he takes
teaching about your baby to
the level needed to understand it,” Jackson says.
That friendly demeanor,
and insistence upon keeping
everyone on the same page,
is also evident in his dealings
with the St. Edward staff,
Jackson adds. Coloso has
steadily bettered all aspects
of its neonatal care, working
with nurses, technicians and
therapists, she says.
THINGS HAVE IMPROVED
Jackson says everything
from X-ray interpretation and
proper ventilation to patient
interactions have improved
thanks to Coloso’s efforts, because his overriding goal is to
provide the maximum level
of care for patients, and that
comes through dialogue, not
decrees.
“It used to be a physician
spoke and we reacted; we
didn’t ask questions,” Jackson says. “He never acts like
there’s such a thing as a stupid
question. If you come to him
with a suggestion, even if he
doesn’t agree with what you
say, he takes the time, even if
he’s busy, to sit down [and]
say, ‘This is what we’re going
to do,’ and why.
“He’s a friend to a lot of
the staff in a lot of ways, and
on a personal level I really
don’t think we could ask for
anything better.”
St. Edward has been exactly what Coloso hoped it
could be, a small-town hospital where he could make a
big impact. He stays on top
of his fast-changing field by
constantly reading medical
journals, because one of his
goals is to continue improving.
He doesn’t list specific areas of improvement, though,
not for himself nor his hospital. He simply wants to do
better, just as he did decades
ago when he was making use
of the only escape from poverty that was available to a
poor boy from the Philippines.
Coloso hasn’t had a day off
since Jan. 21, which sounds impressive — until he says that
he worked 1,440 consecutive
days without a break when he
first got to St. Edward.
“I don’t really set specific
goals,” he says. “I just give it
100 percent and do what I
think is the right thing, not
what people think is the right
thing but what I think is the
right thing and what I can do
about it.”
Ortega
Profiles
v Continued from Page 1D
additional programming.
Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects of Little Rock, perhaps
best known in Arkansas for
helping design the William J.
Clinton Presidential Library, is
designing the museum. In the
process of its development,
the American Association of
Museums was consulted on
quality standards.
The total cost, including
furniture, signs and landscaping, is approximately $2.5 million, Ortega says, a figure that
has nearly been raised.
“Things are going very
well,” Ortega says. “[The
renovation] has been quite a
process. Walls had to come
down to allow the flexibility
of the gallery spaces, but we
wanted to maintain the integrity of the building.”
On May 18, the art museum will be hosting its largest
fundraiser to date, the White
Party. It is timed to coincide
with International Museum
Day, and will be at the home
of museum supporters Kenny and Diane King of Fort
Smith.
All guests are asked to
Writer
Rich Polikoff
(479) 365-2913
rpolikoff@arkansasonline.com
Mail Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
2560 N. Lowell Road, P.O. Box 7
Springdale, Ark. 72765
Fax
(479) 365-2984
Our Town
Editor
Becca BaconMartin(479) 872-5054
bmartin@nwaonline.com
Writers
Kevin Kinder
(479) 872-5188
kkinder@nwaonline.com
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RYAN McGEENEY
Bettina Lehovec (479) 872-5052
The Fort Smith Regional Art Museum is scheduled to open Jan. 19. Lee Ortega is the museum’s
blehovec@nwaonline.com
executive director.
CarinSchoppmeyer(479) 872-5049
wear white to the event, and more friends,” Ortega says.
people have this idea that an cschoppmeyer@nwaonline.com
the only color will come from
Making friends is some- art museum is just paintings,
a surprise artistic component, thing the museum plans it’s this untouchable, distant Ashley Batchelor (479) 872-5051
Ortega says. Tickets are $150 on doing in the lead-up to place for people that only abatchelor@nwaonline.com
each.
“It’s going to be a celebration of the museum and International Museum Day, and
a way that people can meet
and get to know each other,
and for the museum to make
its opening and afterward.
There are plans for monthly
free family days, senior programs, wine tastings and
more.
“It’s much more than exhibits,” Ortega says. “A lot of
know about art history visit,
Mail Northwest Arkansas
and that couldn’t be further
Newspapers
from the truth.”
For more information about the
Fort Smith Regional Art Museum,
call (479) 784-2787 or visit fsram.
org.
2560 N. Lowell Road, P.O. Box 7
Springdale, Ark. 72765
Fax
(479) 872-5055