Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

Better than the proverbial cat with nine lives, Dr. Noli Zosa has "22 lives" and counting, according to him and his lovely wife, Nena.

"I have had 22 near-death experiences, which started when I was just 1-year-old," related Dr. Noli Zosa, prominent family physician and pediatrician in Rio Honda, and EVP of the Philippine Medical Alumni Association of Southern California. "I had a bad case of dysentery when I was 1 and a chicken pox infection when I was still a baby. Through the years, I had many severe afflictions like heart and kidney problems," said Dr. Zosa, who went on dialysis for one year, before a successful kidney transplant, with his youngest son as the donor. Truly, God saved Noli Zosa time and time again, because he has a lot of life missions to fulfill. Life missions - which he has been fulfilling with passion and dedication. Perhaps, Noli lives life more to the fullest, because he has faced death many times.

Born and raised in the Philippines, Dr. Noli Zosa comes from a political family in Cebu. "My father, who was a doctor, was the only non-political member of the family; my uncles were all in politics. In high school, I told my father I wanted to follow his footsteps and become a doctor. He asked me, ‘are you sure you want to be a doctor?’ I said, yes. So, he made me assist him in a surgery he was doing. But when I saw the blood spurt, I passed out," Dr. Soza recalled with a grin.

Noli eventually overcame his fear of blood and graduated from the University of Santo Tomas, College of Medicine in 1964. It was during a visit to his uncle, who was then the Commissioner of Tourism, that the young Noli met the beautiful and charming tourist guide, Nena Catibayan. After a brief courtship, they got married on June 5, 1966. Immediately thereafter, they moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1966 where Noli had his pediatric internship and residency, while Nena worked in admitting and accounting in the same hospital. After two years, they moved to New York. "Masyadong malamig sa Canada e," admitted the doctor.

"Na-culture shock naman ako pagdating namin sa New York," said Nena. "Napaka-conservative kasi ng community namin sa Winnipeg. And then, when we got to New York, puro naka-mini skirts!" she added smilingly. After 6 months, the couple moved to warmer climates in California in 1968, where Dr. Zosa pursued his pediatric specialty at Loma Linda University, University of Southern California and Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Zosa narrated to Asian Journal the early days as being very difficult and strenuous. "At that time, there were very few Filipino doctors here. I experienced some discrimination during my residency and training. They looked down on me, being a Filipino. Pinahihirapan nila ako noon. Ina-assign ako sa mga odd hours at weekends," he said.

"Pero nung [na]tapos na [ang] training ko at nagpa-practice na ako, I had so many patients. Kasi, there were very few pediatricians in the area at that time. I worked in 12 hospitals, and saw an average of 100 patients daily. The majority of the patients were Whites and Latinos; maybe only 10% were Filipinos," shared Dr. Zosa. In 1971, he began his private practice and became the Chairman of Nursery and Pediatrics Department at Rio Hondo Hospital in Downey, California. He also co-founded the Rio Hondo Medical Group, a multi-specialty medical group based in Whittier, California.

Because of his experience, Dr. Zosa was determined to do all he can to help other Filipino doctors in America. He began to gather Filipino doctors together so they will have a united voice and to give back to the community. He became the president of the Filipino-Canadian Association; and president and executive director of the Association of Philippine Physicians of America (APPA). During his tenure with the APPA, he was able to unify as much as 3,500 active Filipino physicians in America, which he considers his greatest career achievement in the organization.

Another notable achievement of Dr. Zosa is he painstakingly conducted review courses for unlicensed Filipino physicians in Los Angeles to help them pass the board and get their licenses. "It’s not easy to get a medical license here and so I helped Filipino doctors from our homeland to review for the board exams," said Noli. He was the only Filipino surveyor at the California Medical Association for Continuing Medical Education. To debunk the myth that Philippine medical school graduates are inferior to their US counterparts, he invited the members of the group and successfully convinced them to recognize that Philippine medical universities are of high quality and standards and are comparable to medical institutions in the US. The findings were shared with medical boards in other states.