Hello and welcome to Forum 360.

I'm your host, Bill Steven Saus.

A program with a global outlook and a local view.

Forum 360 right here in Northeast Ohio, on PBS Western Reserve and Rubber City Radio.

And also our host community, Hudson Community Television.

And we just thank all of our staff, helping to get this program, started today.

We have today, our global outlook is healthcare professional, physicians, surgeons, there are many around the world that go through the specialized training to be a doctor, physician, healthcare professional.

Today, the local view is Doctor Gregory Hill a, D.O., Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and an Akron native.

And it's great to have Doctor Hill with us.

Doc, you have written a book called “Through It All.” How sacrifice and service helped in achieving your dream of becoming a surgeon.” And, we are premiering this book, this year, and we hope to hear more about it.

So thank you for being with Forum 360 today, Doctor.

- Bill, thank you very much for the opportunity to share some information regarding, my book.

And thank you to Meg as well for hosting this event.

- Our producer Meg - (inaudible) information.

- Yes.

- And I appreciate the folks down at Western Reserve Hospital.

it's a physician owned hospital.

and, partnering with University Hospital.

But you've been involved with it for many years.

And we'll get back to that in a little bit.

But I want to talk about your your background, your family.

how things started in your life, to get this dream going, to becoming a surgeon.

What are some of the highlights in the early days?

- Well, I think, as the book sort of outlines, I started I grew up here in the Akron community, in West Akron over near the Akron Zoo.

and I stayed actually, I lived in public housing, commonly known as the projects.

But, you know, I didn't know any different.

- Right.

- That's where I lived.

and this was in the 60s, you know, during some turbulent times.

And then, later on, we moved to West Akron, up near, what was called then West Hill.

And, and I went to, elementary school at Schumacher and, and Simon Perkins junior high school and then, finished my high school education, at, John R. Buchtel High School on Copley Road in Akron.

- So that was your start.

But you want to say that you were a big brother, and that was one of the most interesting parts of the book.

Is your involvement with your siblings, and your parents, your stepdad.

Tell us a little bit about how your parents, you know, got involved in your life, started you out on the right road.

- Well, that's a great question, too.

and certainly encourage everyone to get the book to read a little bit more about the author but you know, when I got to the point that I realized who I was and I was, I was a young boy.

Like most kids growing up, And it was playful and playing.

And in West Akron, near the zoo and, my mom was divorced, and at the time she had, was me and my sister, and I was the oldest of four kids, ultimately.

And, ultimately, my mom, married John Dunkley, my stepdad, And became my dad.

I never referred to him as my stepdad, but he's my dad.

He was there as a provider, and a teacher, and a mentor to some degree.

And that's when we moved to West Akron.

And so we bought a house, and this is all new stuff for me at the time.

And you know - Yeah.

You started with family involvement.

I remember you said in your book about how the Akron Beacon Journal, when you guys were young and your dad said that we've got a job now.

We're going to be delivering The Beacon, one of the night newspapers, one of the biggest newspapers.

And, some of the fun things you remember doing with your folks like that, with your your brothers and your dad.

-Those were incredible times.

And they were fun times because.

And I didn't realize how pivotal and how fun it was until I look back on those times and, we would, obviously get up and deliver the papers.

But to do that, you need to be awakened by a 3:00 in the morning, and you get up and you fold the papers together and you get in the car.

And, of course, my dad, like most dads, would just sit in the car and, ride along and drive along, and we would, do the, the throw the papers, walk through the neighborhood and deliver the papers.

But the best part after that was the bonding that occurred after that when we went to either, Krispy Kreme, which is still present over there, over on the West side, Maple Street.

Right.

And as you know, when you go to Krispy Kremes and you're standing in line waiting for your batch of donuts, they would often offer you, would you like a fresh donut for, coming off the rack?

And course we would say yes.

And we would buy probably eat a half a dozen, then take a half a dozen home, for the rest of the family.

But it was just a wonderful time to be with my brothers and my dad at the time.

you know, you don't recognize the importance of that, at the time, but it was great, growing up.

So, they gave you that work ethic, supporting the family and getting the your family involved because that work ethic, obviously started to materialize as you decided.

Maybe you have that where you talk in your book about a little bit of uncertainty, what you wanted to do.

But eventually you decided I'd like to pursue something in healthcare and tell us about That early involvement and I remember talking to you off the air about Doctor Aubrey Willacy, who was one of the first African-American doctors You you met when you were in high school and you know, doing physicals, for sports activities and so forth.

So seeing these, people that could inspire you, some of the ways that you decided, let's go to the medical field, maybe get started there.

- Right.

And I do remember, Doctor Willacy, because when he was a rare breed, if you will, and was an African-American physician, did primary care, and I played sports growing up.

Played baseball and played basketball, organized baseball and basketball.

Baseball, basketball and football.

And you had to have a physical, before you could play.

And so we would go there and he'd go through the fundamental, basic physical, you know, stretching and checking for a hernia and things like that, you know, but never really had a conversation with him about the healthcare piece, you know?

- Right.

And he said, oh, good luck with what you're doing in school.

But more importantly, when I when I got to Buchtel, and as I talk about in the book when I got to Buchtel, I was a good student, I probably could have been better, but I had an opportunity to participate in a vocational medical careers program.

And so the purpose of that program was to introduce health professions to students who maybe wouldn't decide or hadn't decided about whether they would go to college or not.

and so if you didn't go to college you would have a skill, such that, you'd be prepared to enter the workforce.

- Right.

- And I thought that might be a wonderful opportunity.

And so I, I signed up for the program.

My grades were good enough to do it.

And so we had an opportunity to visit, Akron City Hospital.

There were students in surgical technology, medical assisting, nursing, respiratory therapy, physical therapy.

So I chose surgical technology.

and we went to visit Akron City Hospital at the time, and there was a surgeon there performing an operation.

His name was Doctor Wally Roof.

And so he welcomed us into the operating room.

And they told us, you know, don't touch anything.

Everything is sterile.

And I'm telling you, Bill, it was during that visit, I had an epiphany.

Excuse me.

I had an epiphany.

And by that, I mean I had an awakening that I determined at that moment.

This is what I'm going to do with my life.

I want to be a surgeon.

I think I would love that.

I had no idea what the operation was.

But I was very inquisitive about it.

And there was something that struck me in my head and in my heart that, “hey, you can do this.” - Right - And it was at that point in time around 1972 or ‘73, that I decided that I wanted to become a doctor.

Little did I know how challenging it would be later on, you know, trying to navigate the terrain to becoming a surgeon.

- Right.

- But one thing I would also tell you is that, I had a counselor, in high school who was supposed to be supportive.

And I don't think he was really as supportive as he Might have been.

And he says “well, you have to take the A-C-T.” I questioned him about the purpose of the A-C-T, and he said, “well, you have to make a determination, about whether you go to college or not.” I said, “oh, okay.

Well, how do you prepare for the A-C-T?” He said, “well, you can't study for it.

You got to just take the test.” So I went and took the test.

I didn't do well, of course, because I didn't prepare for it.

- Right.

And he said, “well, we use this as an index of your ability to get to school.” And so I felt like it was a disservice at the time.

And, you know, here I was in a public high school and I don't have the confidence of my counselor.

And so that was another motivating factor for me to show him.

And show the world.

Well, you can't tell me what I'm going to do or not do.

That I can make a decision to do what I want to do with my career.

- Right.

- And I became even more motivated at that point in time, to become a doctor.

- And then you actually you went to University of Akron.

You went to Baldwin Wallace.

A little bit of Cleveland Cuyahoga Community College - Yes, sir.

- And you were able to put all these organizations and institutions together to really provide you with the training you needed to get started.

And then you had a couple to get you to understand what type of surgery.

Tell us about Doctor Forshew.

One of your early mentors in Akron.

- Absolutely.

Doctor Forshew was one of two prominent hand surgeons in the 70s who he had done his, orthopedic residency at Summa.

- Right.

- (inaudible) - Then it was Akron city.

- Right.

- But he had done his residency there and then he had gone away to do a fellowship in Iowa with a renowned surgeon, Adrian Flatt.

So after his fellowship, he came back to Akron.

And so I was working for the hospital at the time, and I would oftentime scrub with him or assist him in surgery, complex surgeries.

And my role at the time was passing instruments.

And so I would help him during those procedures.

And I found it intriguing.

He was a gentleman, He was a scholar, very encouraging.

And I sort of liked him a lot.

But he followed my career.

And once I finished graduating from Baldwin Wallace, strangely enough, I received a phone call from him.

And he says, “Greg, this is Frank Forshew calling.

I want to say congratulations, on your, desire to go to medical school.” He said “but I wanted to talk to you about something here briefly.” He said, “I hear you're going to take a year off of school.

What are you going to do?” I says, I don't know.

I think I need to get a job, make some money and catch my breath a little bit.

- Right.

- And he said, “I would like to offer, you an opportunity to work with our team.” And I felt so honored and so humbled that he would choose me to be a part of his team.

And, so then I went from working at City Hospital to working for Doctor Forshew as a private assistant.

As a surgical assistant in the office, and in the operating room.

And it was incredible because I worked side by side with him.

When got called in the middle of the night for a traumatic hand injury, they would call me.

And I would be there to assist.

Passing instruments, working, doing microsurgery, assisting under the microscope.

- Right.

And it was a wonderful opportunity, as I prepared then to, apply to Ohio University - for medical school, yeah for the osteopathic -medical school - Yeah, I applied to Ohio University then - Yeah You know, around September or so, I was accepted.

We received the acceptance letter.

- Right.

- And then I was accepted into Ohio University.

- I think in your book, you talk about you had been in the class of 1986, the graduate class.

- Yes sir.

- At Ohio University and that is the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

- Yes sir.

- Out of 100 students, there were four African-American.

You were one of them.

- That is correct.

(inaudible) Yes sir, four African-American students there.

And as we look at things today, in society, there's this emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion.

and there was not in the 80s probably was not that emphasis on D-E-I as it's called nowadays.

- Right.

- And so there were four, like you mentioned, for African-American students.

And interesting at the end of the at the end of the first quarter, if you will, we were on quarters, not semesters, but at the end of the first quarter, there were two left.

- Okay.

one person had some health issues, and he had to resign from school.

And the other person, we call it recycling got, you know, so they had some academic challenges and came back with the following class and graduated.

Fine.

- I want to just say that we are talking to Doctor Gregory Hill, from Western Reserve Hospital and Unity Health Physicians.

And we're talking about his new book, “Through It All.” How sacrifice and service helped in achieving, his dream of becoming a surgeon.

It's available.

Doctor Hill's memoir and book is available on Amazon.

and I'm I'm so glad that this book came out because it's inspiring to me.

And I can appreciate the rigors and the discipline that you'd have to go through to become a surgeon.

And we're going to talk about also your involvement in the military.

If you look at the cover, you'll see, Doctor Hill with the U.S. Army for part of part of his scrubs I think in your book, you talk about 1983, you explored, getting involved in the, U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps.

Tell us about how that impacted your life also, Doctor.

- Yes sir.

So, I came from a family of veterans, actually.

We had a blended family.

I had a stepbrother who was one year ahead of me at Buchtel.

And he had joined the Air Force, and was stationed in California.

And then growing up, I had a a decorated Vietnam vet as someone that I idolized as a youngster.

- Wow - And he had a pile of shoes and the Class A uniform.

And so I had always thought in my mind that I would be honored to serve.

But in medical school, many students go and they have financial challenges like I did as well.

And as an opportunity to supplement my income and to gain military and medical experience at the same time, get academic credit, military credit, I decided to join the United States Army Reserves and the Ohio Army National Guard.

and this was in March of 1983.

And so during peacetime, you still train and so we would do physicals, we would go to Grayling, Michigan.

We would do range fire, medical exams and all of these kinds of things.

Well, this little thing called 9/11 occurred.

- Right 9/11, 2001 and you were already - There you go - Well in your career, well involved in your career.

- I was well involved in my career at the time.

And then 9/11 occurred.

And so I was very very concerned that I would be mobilized or you know, - Combat active duty - Combat active duty.

Right.

Had to go to active duty.

And we didn't know what that looked like.

But our commander told us that, “yes, at some point in time, you will have to go, but we don't know when.” and so I was a newlywed at the time.

I got married, my wife, Judy, and I married, one month to the day of 9/11.

- Wow And so she was concerned by it, and my mother was concerned by it.

And, as you will read in the book, that day came I was in surgery on a Thursday afternoon when I received a phone call from my commander.

- Exactly.

- Telling me about, it was my time to serve.

and you knew the amount of time you would have to be for your first deployment to, going to Iraq for, Iraqi freedom and so forth.

So, tell us about that.

That initial, knowledge that you're going overseas.

and there was some preparation correct Doctor?

that you really had to work on.

Yes, yes.

there's an extreme amount of preparation that is required when you are a reservist and you are going from the civilian side to an active duty conflict.

first of all, you have to do what's called “pre-mobilization checklist.” There's a checklist that you have to go through, if you will, that includes, making sure that your financial things are covered, Make sure your family things are covered.

- Right.

- Medical things are covered.

And, your employment on the civilian side, making sure that your life insurance and your disability insurance is covered.

- Right.

One of the more important things is that, you have to go through a rigorous physical exam to make sure you are suitable and fit for combat, and that is a generic term.

But to be fit for combat means, to carry, 20 or 30, extra pounds to, carry your weapon to jump, to climb to do anything like that.

So, there's a lot of things that, that are required.

One of the important things that I will comment on is, that bothered my wife significantly is that I had to make sure that my life insurance was in order.

- Right.

- And the military makes a big deal of that.

And my wife said, “The military is preparing you as though you're not going to come back.” And I said, “That is a requirement.

That is exactly what they do.” - Right.

It's the knowing that you have to serve.

- Right.

In the event that you're injured or you’re killed, you have to be able to identify and the process has to be established so that your families are taken care of.

- Now, the first deployment, you were in a zone where you had a medical, a group, I guess you could call it.

A field hospital or military hospital.

But on the second deployment, you went out and you went further north to the Fallujah area.

That is an amazing part of the book where you got a little bit more involved.

and when your commanding officers, the other surgeons would say, you know, “Greg, you're not just going to be a hand surgeon.

You're going to have to, you know, be an orthopedics generalist.” - Going to be trauma surgeon.

- Yeah, a trauma surgeon.

- Right.

So, the military training is amazing.

And that's another reason why somebody should read the book.

“Through It All” and is about your military service.

But one of the things that inspired, you to do things back at the hospital was to teach, get involved with residency.

What were some of the activities you did to try to prepare young residents to be a part of Western Reserve Hospital and what you've done to inspire them?

I mean, some of the work you've done there just you know, that you've being a mentor for others just like Doctor Forshew was a mentor to you, you know?

- Right.

We always talk about carrying it forward.

And I think that I'm really at heart, a teacher.

and because someone at some point in time reach back and pick me up, and poured some blessings and some knowledge into my brain and my heart and encouraged me to do the same for other people, I think.

And, at the core of who I am, I'm a servant leader.

and I think as a servant, it's about giving and helping in whatever capacity you can.

And so from an educator standpoint, again, someone taught me how to be a doctor.

How to scrub in surgery, how to sew and how to reduce fractures, how to do surgeries.

And I think it's only befitting that I should carry on, that in terms of the current generation.

- Right, right.

- And I've been in practice 32 years.

And of those 32, I've been a program director or an educator and mentor, approximately 25 to 30 of those years.

- I know, at the hospital, you and doctor Rob Kent, osteopathic physicians, are leading and providing a lot of, leadership to young doctors.

you have in your book, a theme that seems to go through the book, “Through It All” six key principles that you think, encourage people.

Faith, perseverance, relationships, service, preparation and discipline.

And I think you use that when you read the book.

You use those when you're teaching young people, whether they're really young teenagers or you even say that sometimes residents remind you of teenagers.

I like that because, you know, is that they really don't know where they're going yet.

And then and you provide that.

They've got their medical degree, they're doctors.

But you have to, you know, show them, the practical side of medicine.

And I think that those key points are so important Right?

- Absolutely.

As I wrote the book, I sort of tried to figure out, what values were most important to me And first and foremost, I take as a servant leader, My faith was important.

As I talk about in the book, there multiple times in my life where my faith has been important.

Multiple times in my military training, being in combat, trusting situations, right?

Trusting the unknown, trusting of being in battle and things like that.

to go to medical school, it's a long, arduous journey, and, it requires perseverance.

And if you think that you can do it quickly, you know, there's a lot more to learn, right?

- Yeah, you got time and discipline and all of these things.

Faith, perseverance.

And your church.

You're active now still at church at the Arlington Church of God.

And I just want to say, if people really want to get this information go to Amazon and try to buy “Through It All.” And we got about a minute left, Doctor.

You also have a website which people can go to also correct, Doctor Hill?

It’s - Yes.

drhill-inspiringandeducating.com We got a minute left Doc, is there anything, you want to close with?

for the audience of Forum 360?

- yes, I think, I've been blessed to, write a book, write this book “Through It All.

How Sacrifice And Service Helped In Achieving My Dream Of Becoming A Surgeon.” I think it's an inspiring read.

It is my memoir.

I personally wrote the book, obviously, but, it is for those individuals who face challenges about life, whether it's educational, whether it’s social, whether it's financial.

and, understand that the journey can be arduous, and it can be long, and it requires perseverance, it requires discipline, it requires mentorship, it requires mentoring and working with other individuals that can pour blessings into your life.

- I appreciate that, yeah.

- Those of us who have been sucessful, We have to rely on others to help us become successful.

- Doctor Gregory Hill, I want to thank you for being a part of Forum 360 and your “Through It All” book is a wonderful book.

I will hope that many people can find that and get involved in in reading it.

Thank you, Doctor Hill.

- Bill, thank you very, very much And thank you, for Forum 360.

Allowing me to, share my story.

Thank you.

- Anytime, Doctor.

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