CHOC wants its patients and families to get to know its specialists. Today, meet Dr. Gary Goodman, a pediatric critical care medicine specialist and medical director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at CHOC at Mission Hospital. After graduating from medical school at University of California, Irvine, he served his internship, residency and chief residency training in pediatrics at UC Davis Medical Center. Dr. Goodman completed a pediatric critical care and pulmonary medicine fellowship at CHOC.
What are your special clinical interests?
I am particularly interested in traumatic brain injury, concussions, respiratory failure and shock.
How long have you been on staff at CHOC?
I have been on staff for 30 years.
Are there any new programs within your specialty at CHOC you’d like to share?
We are now utilizing noninvasive ventilation and physiologic monitoring. We have developed improved treatment of ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). We are also proud of our neuro-critical care team.
What would you most like community/referring physicians to know about your division at CHOC?
The division of pediatric critical care provides outstanding and personalized care for children and their families when their need is the highest. We strive to not only provide state-of-the-art medical care, but to also support the emotional needs of the patient and family. Our comprehensive, multi-disciplinary team works together to address every need and concern a patient and family might have.
What inspires you most about the care being delivered at CHOC?
For a pediatric specialist, there is no higher honor and privilege than working at a hospital dedicated to caring for children. I am always surrounded by and supported by other practitioners who share my passion for caring for children and who are all pediatric specialists themselves.
When did you decide you wanted to be a doctor?
I wanted to be a doctor since I was 5 years old, inspired by black and white documentaries about medicine.
If you weren’t a physician, what would you be and why?
If I wasn’t a physician, I would be an architect. I am fascinated by design and how the environment we live and work in can have such positive and even healing effects on us.
What are you hobbies and interests outside of medicine?
I enjoy listening to music (jazz and classical), cooking, photography, collecting watches and traveling.
What was the funniest interaction you had with a patient?
Just recently, I had a patient, who has a mild developmental delay, call me “the boy.” I would stop in the patient’s room each morning, at which point I’d get asked, “What do YOU want?”
