HEALTH Positive influence
Corner Brook’s Dr. David Brake receives Rural Physician of the Year Award from Doctors Nova Scotia
Dr. David Brake has been a positive influence on the respiratory landscape of Cape Breton since he arrived in Nova Scotia, but he still enjoys making house calls to the place he calls home.
The 52-year-old Corner Brook native, a respirologist and intensive care specialist, is being recognized after 27 years in practice for his dedication in caring for patients at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Sydney.
Dr. Brake, holder of a bachelor of science and medical doctorate (MD) from Memorial University, will be presented with the Rural Physician of the Year Award for Doctors Nova Scotia at the association’s annual conference June 9 in Membertou.
Dr. Brake runs a chest clinic and cares for patients who are struggling with respiratory disease. He is the medical director for Critical Care Medicine at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital as well as medical director and co-founder of both the Cape Breton Chest Clinic and Cape Breton Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program.
His training took him to St. John’s, Ontario and even a shortstint in Ireland, but making his way back to the east coast, and even hopefully back to the west coast of Newfoundland preferably, was always something that he envisioned someday.
His life took a turn, for the better he would tell you for sure, when he was thinking about going to Halifax to set up a practice 20 years ago and a few of his friends suggested he come join them in Cape Breton because they were going to work at a new hospital just built in Sydney.
He decided to take his friends up on the offer and he’s settled in nicely in his new digs, knowing it’s a pretty good gig that allows him to be closer to family and friends with a boat ride across the Gulf a quick connect for him to visit his parents or vice versa.
He hopes to find his way back to the Rock someday, but he admits it’s not easy to pull up stakes once you have vested so much time into the care of your patients, while being fully aware of the shortages of specialists in the province and the that the demand is so huge.
“Once you set up a practice and once you kind of established yourself in a place as a specialist it’s not easy to leave. It’s hard to just walk away from that,” Dr. Brake said from Cape Breton Saturday afternoon.
Dr. Brake, whose medical chart also includes a specialty in internal medicine from Dalhousie University and a subspecialty in pulmonary and critical medicine from Western Ontario, wasn’t expecting to win any awards for his work because his focus has always been centered around going to work every day and doing his best to make a difference in people’s lives, but he appreciates the fact people understand the value and importance in the work that he does.
Life has been great for a man that has spent long hours working to help others, but it really came into true perspective when he started his own family with wife Heather Grant. The couple have two children — four-year-old Grant and fiveyear-old Lucy — who keep them both on their toes.
So many years spent trying to become a doctor didn’t provide the right environment to raise a family, so a family unit is the reward for the countless hours spent in the classroom and hospital in the desire to be a healthcare provider who could be an impact player.
“It’s a big change of lifestyle. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said of his children.
Dr. Brake is looking forward to a break from the hectic daily grind. The west coast keeps calling him several times a year — Marble Mountain in the winter because he loves to ski — and Castor River to pursue silver missiles with a few of his salmon angling friends.
Tight lines, Dr. Brake.