The Brown Interview

Michael (Reporter): Hi Ms. Olivia. Do you want to start?

Olivia Brown: Sure why not.

Michael: Why don't we start from the beginning, you are Mr. Brown's childhood?

Olivia Brown: Yes... both of us come from very poor families from Stamford, England, I had 6 siblings and Harry, my husband had 5 so both us being the oldest one had to help out in cleaning the house, getting the younger kids ready and helping our parents cook. I lived in this small tiny house that looked squished between another house. I and my sisters shared a room while my bothers stayed in another. It was a 3 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms and 9 people living in it. Harry, my husband lived in a much worse situation he lived on the smallest street in a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with 8 people. house. Both our parents really pushed us to do well in school because they believed that the better we do in school the better our lives would be later on. They were very much right when it came to that because both of us ended up doing well because of our education. We had a very busy childhood. Being like that we had very little time for our studies and school work but we made the most out of the time we got. Both did very well in our academics but Harry was the more gifted in both academics and sports and had a whole side of his room filled with awards and trophies. He was the best in basketball so by the time he got to 11th grade he got about 5 scholarships because of his game. Me on the other side I was good compared to many people in my school so managed to get a good scholarship. If you compare our childhood to our kids, you would see the difference.

Michael: How did you two meet?

Olivia: It is a coincidence actually, out of all the collages he got scholarships from he chose the same college that I was going to. We have a two year gap so he was in the 3rd year in the college when we met. Just like in school he was the best in his class and I was good so I was somewhere in the top 10. I had this habit of ranking every person in my grade and if I have to be accurate I was in the 6th place. It was actually very weird, I never got to a higher or lower place in the ranking chart. Harry had got the scholarship for his sports and how well he did academically and because of that for half of the day he was playing basketball and for the other half he was busy studying. Even though he was very good at so many things he had never seen himself playing basketball or anything else as a career, for his whole life he had always wanted to be a doctor and help people. That's what I like most about him.

Michael: When did you know that you wanted to be a doctor?

Olivia: There was this time in our childhood where we couldn't afford to go to the doctor and so we had to borrow medications from our neighbors so that we could get better. In that time we had been through the toughest of fevers, and colds, then I decided that I wanted to be a doctor because I thought maybe then I would be able to help my siblings and parents for free. As I grew older my will for becoming a doctor and helping people became stronger so when the time came to the point where I had to choose, I chose to be a doctor.

Micheal: So your childhood really shaped your future then?

Olivia (laughing): More than you can tell.

Michael: Why don't you tell me about your wedding and your kids?

Olivia: I got married when I was only 18. Both of us studied for a long time after we got married because you know how it is to become a doctor. We were both lucky since we got scholarships for all our education after school. While we were in college we worked in coffee shops, grocery stores, and many other places. We had our kids, Chloe, Madison, and Noah during our first jobs which were in this tiny practice in the middle of the city, York to which we moved right after we graduated and became doctors. It wasn't very busy so we had a lot of time to ourselves. Harry and I soon started working in the York hospital which back then was like the main hospital in the city. We would work long and different shifts so that one could be with the kids and one of us could be working.

Michael: Were there any times where you felt that you really good about the opportunities that you could give your kids?

Olivia: Well I can't say that there were any certain times but overall the fact that we could give them proper education and send them to any school or any college that they want to go and having the ability to give them what they want is something that will make us feel very good because we didn't have so many opportunities when we were kids and changing that situation for them is a really big deal and it will always make us feel really proud.

Michael: Where are your kids now?

Olivia: Well our oldest, Chloe is engaged and is getting married in November in London. Madison is still in college, last year of Speciality training. She will graduate in May. Noah is in senior year of Med school, he really doesn't like being the youngest because in his opinion the youngest kid has to be very nice to the older ones and do what they tell the youngest to do.

Michael: Why did you decide that you wanted to start a hospital?

Olivia: In the York hospital we would see that many of the patients were neglected and given less attention because they had less severe disease. We could see that they were suffering even though they were less sick comparatively. We would try to do as much as we could to help them feel better but really what could 2 doctors do? We saw that many of these people's condition got worse even if we could have prevented that from happening and we really thought that we should do something about it. Later we finally were able to start a small clinic called Brown's Clinic and slowly and luckily the clinic grew to become a hospital and later hospitals.

Michael: You said that you wanted to give attention to every one of your patients, so what did you do differently in your hospital?

Olivia: We had the ability to personally give attention to every patient while we were running the clinic but as we grew bigger into a hospital, we started training people and having teams for different kinds of diseases and planning the whole day for a doctor so that they could have a particular amount of time for every one of their patients and their cases. I and Harry still go to the hospitals and check out everything and help out everybody.

Michael: When did you first feel your success?

Olivia: I personally think that success depends on your past and how much better you are doing now. But then there was this one moment, this was when we first started the actual hospital. So there was this family who's daughter had TB and she was first admitted to the York Hospital and then was moved to ours when the doctors there said there was less hope. Our doctors examined the case thoroughly and put the child off the medication. And I know that this seems like a fairy tale, happy ending story but then the girl was cured by the end of the year. The very day that the family got the good news about their daughter, I was in that block in that hospital for a patient and the mother came up to me and said, "your hospital is so much better than any other, you make us feel like your one and only goal is to save my daughter and you did. You have done so much for our family and the compassion that is given by the doctors and you are the things that make it feel so safe.". The very reason that we wanted to start a hospital was to make our patients feel like we are there only for them and give them all our attention and when she came up to me and said all that, it was the first time I really felt our success and I am not talking in term of numbers or anything. It really felt great to be succeeding for the very reason we started a hospital.

Michael: What place in your life are you in right now?

Olivia: We are in a really good place, the hospital is doing very well, our children are doing great and we are just trying to enjoy the moment.

Michael: Looks like that was the last question. Thank you for giving us your time and answering all our questions. You and Mr. Harry have had quite the journey.

Olivia: It was a pleasure being here, thank you for having me.