Texas Doctor News
LAREDO, TX – Since opening his practice in 1987, Milton Haber, M.D., has redefined patient care and advocacy in his hometown of Laredo, Texas. From sending patients home with warm meals and funds to cover their living expenses to bringing lifesaving COVID clinical trials to the community, his personal philosophy of “do what you can do” exemplifies the power individuals have to make a difference. In his debut memoir, “A GRAND SLAM LIFE: A Physician Gets COVID, Finds His Way, and Works to Transform a Texas Community,” Haber reflects on his journey to becoming a doctor and shares profound insight gleaned from decades of practice.
After narrowly surviving COVID, Haber spent significant time meditating on his life’s purpose and the synchronicities that led him down this path. “A GRAND SLAM LIFE” recounts a magical childhood encounter with New York Yankees baseball pitcher Al Downing, a chance meeting that made him realize dreams are possible. Early experiences visiting his mother’s family in Mexico and working as an orderly also exposed him to poverty and marginalization, which further inspired him to dedicate himself in service of others. Medical school, however, was not in Haber’s plan until a visit to a friend ignited a flame buried deep within.
Over 30 years later, Haber’s purpose is reaffirmed everyday by his desire to continually do more for his patients. As he explains in “A GRAND SLAM LIFE,” he decided to expand his focus and open Laguna Clinical Research Associates, bringing much-needed clinical trials to historically excluded Hispanic and other minority populations. While he could never have imagined that a pandemic would strike only a few months later, the center was scouted for Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trials and paved the way toward making treatment and prevention modalities more accessible to underserved communities.
Haber concludes “A GRAND SLAM LIFE” with a blueprint for a navigating a post-COVID world, both recovering what has been lost and improving what has long been broken. He advocates for a small-town mindset in which people love and care for one another and lend a helping hand whenever they can. As he notes, no act is too small, and even simple gestures like getting the vaccine and following safety guidelines can make a significant difference. Ultimately, he hopes that readers will walk away inspired to discover their own unique purpose and how it can be used for the greater good.
“Life is fragile, and we need to cherish it and those around us,” said Haber. “We all have a role to play, and we need to discover what that role is so that we can contribute to the betterment of life.”
“In these dark and uncertain times, a beam of light is needed and welcome,” wrote an Amazon reviewer. “Light is what I found in Dr. Haber’s story and inspirational approach to life and the practice of medicine.”
“A GRAND SLAM LIFE: A Physician Gets COVID, Finds His Way, and Works to Transform a Texas Community”
By Milton Haber, M.D. with Beth Herman
ISBN: 9781665528788 (softcover); 9781665528764 (hardcover); 9781665528771 (electronic)
Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and AuthorHouse
About the authors
Milton Haber, M.D., grew up the baseball-obsessed son of a driven Laredo, Texas, business owner from whom he got his work ethic. His mother, who fled Poland for Mexico as a child, taught him compassion, a catalyst for his career in internal medicine. Boyhood trips to Mexican relatives exposed him to the indescribable poverty and suffering of strangers along the way, further directing the course of his life. He routinely provided food, medicine, rent money and more to his patients in need. In 2018, at an age when many retire, he expanded the scope of his mission. Founding Laguna Clinical Research Associates to facilitate life-changing clinical trials in his Laredo community and eventually throughout South Texas, the studies conducted would include Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trials. Contracting the coronavirus himself, a life and death ICU experience set him on a spiritual path where he created a blueprint for navigating a post-COVID world. To learn more about Haber, please visit miltonhabermd.com.
Beth Herman is a journalist, author, editor and Amazon #1 bestselling ghostwriter of more than 20 books ranging from business and finance to architecture and design, lifestyle and healthy living, religion and spirituality, memoir and business memoir and animal welfare. Her features and profiles have appeared in the Washington Post, Cape Cod Times, Portland Press Herald, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Farmers’ Almanac, Harvard Divinity School Annual Report and more. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University and lives in coastal Maine.
