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Dr. Guillermo Gutierrez

When he was 15, Guillermo Gutierrez was very ill. There were no pediatricians in his native Guadalajara, Mexico, so his parents took him to the family doctor.

From that day, he knew what he wanted to do with his life.

“He gave me medicine and it worked magic. I thought, ‘This guy has magic.’ I knew I wanted to be a doctor,” Gutierrez recalls.

For 35 years, he has specialized in treating the littlest and youngest patients. While he was in pediatric training, Gutierrez rotated in intensive care, where he enjoyed being around babies.

Hailing from a middle-class family with five sons and five daughters, Gutierrez’ parents could not afford to pay for college, let alone tuition at the Guadalajara School of Medicine. So he, and his two siblings who are also in the medical profession, relied completely on scholarships, studying day and night to keep their grades up.

“We did not have much money, so we knew they looked at our grades. If we didn’t have them, then we could not go to school,” he says.

Gutierrez treats every one of his patients and their families as if they are the only ones on his list. He understands the trauma parents endure when having a sick baby, so he takes the time to treat each patient as an individual, no matter how busy he gets.

“Every single day is exciting and special because I have very interesting patients,” he says.

Although the medical training is a rough road, Gutierrez says if the desire is there, any goal is within reach.

“It can be done, it just needs effort. Keep focused on what you’re doing. Forget about parties and drinking. You can do that later,” he says.

Gutierrez talks about his father’s advice, taken from the Chinese philosopher Confucius.

“Find a job you like and you will never have to work,” he says. “I enjoy what I do every day, so it’s not really work. If you are not tired but have to push yourself out of bed every morning just to go to work, then you need to find something else.”