Time to listen, to care: A cardiologist with a big heart

First of two parts:

Cardiologist Jean Chatham was always running behind because he spent so much time with each patient.

He had a way of talking so even when news was bad, his patients felt better.

“Most times,” his wife, Indu Chatham, said, “he was more psychologist than cardiologist. He would put his stethoscope down and say, ‘Tell me what is going on.’ ”

And then he would listen.

“For him, it was important to make that connection, whether it was his patients, his family members, his kids or his kids’ friends,” Indu said. Jean asked questions. He wanted to know people.

Jean was regularly named one of “Arizona’s Top Doctors” in Phoenix magazine. He joined his father’s practice in 2003 and together in 2010 they created the Chatham Heart Center in Mesa.

Jean seemed to know when someone was lonely or needed attention, even if it wasn’t obvious to others.

“He always found a way to reach them the way they wanted to be reached,” Indu said.

Jean drew out his quiet 8-year-old nephew, taking him on bike rides and swimming. He bought him a watch, one the boy wears always.

In the early days of his practice, Jean was a workaholic. When he and Indu had children, he made sure he was home in the afternoons, going back to hospital rounds after the kids were in bed.

When his youngest, Matthew, was into yo-yoing, Jean read up on it. He watched YouTube videos with his daughter Maya. He took up mountain biking with his oldest, Luke.

“Everything he did, he invested in it,”

Indu said.

It was hard to ever be mad at him, Indu said. Because at church, where many parishioners were his patients, they would tell Indu what a good man he was.

“Jesus,” she would pray, “are you trying to tell me I can’t be mad at him?”

Indu couldn’t even be mad at him the day he didn’t return from a mountain bike ride. Thursday: “You’re going to soar.”