Homegrown doctors are not even possible now

Humberto Barragan is an almost perfect candidate for UC Merced's proposed medical school.

An interest in public-service health care? Check.

A dedication to practice in the Valley? Check.

Hard work and good grades? Check.

Reflective of the face of California? Check.

But Barragan, 37, has already finished osteopathic medical school. He's a second-year resident at Mercy Family Medical Clinic and Mercy Medical Center in Merced.

"I wish it had been here when I graduated," Barragan said of the prospective UC Merced program.

Nevertheless, he looks forward to helping future residents from the school once it opens.

Barragan decided to pursue an osteopathic medical degree after seeing the hurdles his parents faced getting care when he was growing up.

"I remember when my mom and dad would go to the doctor -- which was really rare -- and I would be their interpreter, which was tough," Barragan said.

Barragan's parents were migrant farmworkers. The family spent each year circling through the United States and Mexico, offering their services for the various harvests: citrus in Florida, tobacco in North Carolina, apples in Washington, all the rest in the Valley.

When work was finished, they returned south of the border.

Barragan can rattle off a list of schools he attended during his stops in Merced: Franklin, Burbank, Givens, Muir, each of the city's middle schools, with the exception of Weaver.

In the end, his parents settled here, and he graduated from Merced High School. After graduation, he attended Merced College for one year, while waiting for his now-wife to graduate.

Together they enrolled at Long Beach State University before transferring to Fresno State, where he graduated in 1995. (She graduated in 1997.)

Barragan returned to Merced, worked for seven years to settle the family, then enrolled at Touro University's College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo, 140 miles away.

The curriculum at osteopathic medical schools involves four years of academic study, according to the Web site www.osteopathic.org. Throughout the curriculum, medical students learn to use osteopathic principles and techniques to diagnose and treat patients, according to the Web site.

For the next two years, Barragan spent five days a week in classes, journeying home only on weekends. He finished his classwork in Spring 2004, then spent one year each in Bakersfield and Fresno doing his clinical coursework. Finally, in 2007, he returned to Merced to work, splitting time between Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Family Medical Center.

Mild-mannered, but authoritative in his white coat, Barragan is often seen giving advice to other residents at Mercy and flashing a big smile to waiting patients.

His goal is to do more than simply treat his patients. He insists on taking enough time to educate them about their ailments.

"I want to make them feel better -- physically and emotionally," he said.

He feels fulfilled when he leaves patients with tools they can use to strike out on their own to a healthier life.

That sense of satisfaction skyrockets when a diabetes patient thanks him after getting drastically improved test scores.

"There is a great sense of feeling when they come back to thank you" after a successful treatment, Barragan said. "It sometimes brings tears to your eyes."

Barragan is known around the hospital and clinic for never shortchanging his patients on time. Sometimes that gets him into trouble.

At the dermatology clinic on a recent Thursday, Barragan finished with a patient, then settled into a chair near a nursing station to add more information to an earlier patient's medical chart. A nurse turned around and said, teasingly, "You're behind." He acknowledged the criticism with a smile and continued filling out the chart.

"When I was growing up, no matter how much respect I had for physicians, I didn't like the way they treated patients, the (short) amount of time they spent with them," he said.

Does he plan to stay in Merced after his residency requirement?

"Absolutely. I want to give back to the city where I did my growing up."