Even before mother nature intervened on Aug. 13, this past year had been a time of hard work, reflection and emotion for the Valladares family. In June, sisters Blanca, Ivette, Jeannette and Navija Valladares, all doctors, hosted a reception to celebrate the opening of a new facility for Vallacare Health Services, located in Punta Gorda. A month earlier, they accepted a proclamation from the city's mayor, Steve Fabian, making May 25 Dr. Roger Valladares Day in recognition of their father's years of community service. Roger Valladares, the original CEO of Vallacare Health Services and mentor to his daughters, passed away not long after groundbreaking for the new site.

Then, two months after Vallacare's new, 7,000-square-foot facility opened, Hurricane Charley blew through the center of town and destroyed the building. Winds exceeding 150 miles per hour peeled the rubber membrane off the brand-new roof and shattered the front doors. Torrential rain pounded the structure, soaking ceilings and walls, ruining floors and destroying sensitive diagnostic equipment.

"It's incredible to have lost so much of our hard work in one hour," says Jeannette. "Once we can get the roof rebuilt and the drywall up, I think we'll be back in the building pretty quickly. We're hoping at the most it won't take more than a few months."

Family Ties

Vallacare is the fruition of a dream the sisters had while growing up. Since opening seven years ago, the family practice has seen its revenues grow roughly 25 percent per year. Staff has gone from one employee and one doctor to 25 employees, including a nurse practitioner and three doctors-two of the doctors being Navija Valladares and Denver Nutter, Blanca's husband.

After outgrowing its first 3,000-square-foot building in downtown Punta Gorda, Vallacare progressed to its big new facility.

There, the sisters began providing an array of medical services needed in this rapidly growing community. They equipped Vallacare with a lab for blood work and capability for diagnostics in bone density, echocardiogram, X-rays and ultrasound.

In addition, a separate company, National Medical Affiliates, provides hospitalist services at any of three local hospitals. Hospitalists relieve the workload of primary-care physicians who might not have the time to visit patients at the hospital while keeping up with a practice. The company hires doctors expressly to work in the hospital from the patient's admission to discharge. "We've gotten a good response from area doctors," says Blanca.

A third company that's also in the new facility, Complete Physical Rehab-ilitation, provides physical therapy.

The Valladares sisters credit their strong relationship and work ethic to their parents. Their mother, Navija Valladares, lives in Punta Gorda and is a part of the daily lives of the daughters and their grandchildren. "They were always there for us, and provided incredible moral support," says Ivette. "My father was always home for dinner at 5:30 and we always went to Sunday mass. I think he would have supported anything we wanted to do, but more than anything he wanted us to remain close."

As a youth in Cuba, Roger Vall-adares talked of being a physician someday, but marriage, children and a need for food on the table stood in the way of years of medical school. Instead, he earned a doctorate in commercial sciences and became an early computer specialist.

When the Castro regime took over in 1960, he fled to Youngstown, Ohio, with his wife (eight months' pregnant with Jeannette) and their young children, Navija and Ivette. The family started in America with $3.65. In Ohio, Valladares' inclination for math and computer sciences was recognized. Within three years, after a brief stint in construction and a computer-services job in a bank, he was manager of information systems for U.S. Steel.

"My father was a brain," says Jeannette. "I have never met anyone quicker with numbers."

Valladares put his four daughters through medical school before retiring at age 55. From then on, he continued to work, helping children in impoverished Latin American countries and encouraging the career aspirations of his daughters.

Working Together
"We used to say that when we grew up we wanted to be doctors and work together," says Jeanette. "My parents put a great emphasis on education and helping others. I think 80 percent of our success is that we have each other and that we're not afraid of hard work."

The three younger sisters say that Navija's early studies in medicine convinced them to become physicians. "When we saw her so enthused, we all knew we wanted to enter the profession," remembers Blanca.

Now Navija, the first board-certified female family physician in Punta Gorda, is medical director and the only Valladares practicing medicine. Blanca inherited her father's love of mathematics and is president. After graduating from medical school, Ivette became involved with the United Nations.

As a doctor, she traveled to Mexico and El Salvador to aid in relief following natural disasters. It was in those countries, while developing crucial avenues to speed supplies to those who needed it most, that she realized her skills were in negotiation and communication. At Vallacare Health Services she is director of public relations. While studying for her medical boards, Jeannette met her future husband, Dr. Federico Rivero, who influenced her decision to become involved in the business side of health care. She is the director of human resources.

The family followed Navija to Punta Gorda and within a few years, the business was formed. "We were all sitting around my parents' dinner table one night and my father suggested it," recalls Jeannette. "My husband has opened many medical practices, and he said that with our backgrounds a family practice was a natural choice that he could help with."

In Punta Gorda, starting a medical practice was not without challenge. At every turn, Jeannette reports, they faced obstacles. To start with, they were told that they'd never find a building in downtown Punta Gorda. After looking for months, it was Blanca, not a realtor, who saw the sign in front of a small building with an adjacent lot that became their parking lot. And Jeannette remembers that many seemed wary of young women opening a medical practice.
"We had to prove ourselves every day," she says.

On the Mend
The demand for community medical services has been so strong and the reputation of Vallacare Health Services so well received that prior to Charley the building was already operating at full capacity and the Valladareses had considered expansion.

The Category Four hurricane severely disrupted the lives of almost everyone in the area. Jeannette and Navija Valladares lost their homes, along with many of their employees who will be unable to return to work for months. Even if they were able to come back, there isn't room for everyone in the temporary work trailers the sisters have set up onsite.

"Our employees have been incredible," says Jeannette. "We're trying to keep as many as possible so that they can count on a paycheck."

A team of workers has been hired to secure the building and begin removing damaged material.

In the meantime, Vallacare doctors have been on call. The trailers housing a medical staff will remain in the parking lot while the medical building is restored to the high standards of its original designer. And as the rebuilding continues, it's yet another time of hard work, reflection and emotion for the family.

"The first few days after the storm I walked around in shock looking at all we had lost," says Jeanette. "But then it hit me that instead of counting my losses, I should be counting my blessings. My family is alive, and my sisters were here to help just minutes after the winds died down. Vallacare Health Services will come back stronger, bigger and better."