Doctor cares for Tangier Island

TANGIER, Va. - The Chesapeake Bay defines Tangier Island. The island is a small patch of sand twelve miles away from the mainland, the town relies on the surrounding water for its commerce, its communication, and it's culture.

But if the bay brings life to Tangier, Doctor David Nichols brings health.

Every Thursday for the last thirty years, Nichols has donated his time, flying the fifteen minutes to the island's often deserted airstrip, taking one of the island's only cars to its only clinic.

An expertise in medicine first brought him here to practice. A passion for its people kept him coming back.

Everyone doubted the doctor when he promised he would be a regular. After all the clinic needs as much help as some of the patients.

"When [Hurricane] Isabelle hit this place it tore shingles off the roof," remembered Nichols, "and every time it rained we couldn't use this room."

But there were two things no one would have imagined all those years ago.

How important he would become to these people, nd how important they'd become to him.

In a place too tightknit for strangers and too small for crime, they have a far bigger problem. For Bonnie Landon, a resident, it's her knees. For many others, it's heart disease or diabetes: medical problems that go unchecked or untreated.

On our Thursday visit, Bonnie waited for Dr. Nichols.

"Are you standing now? Let me see you walk here," urged Nichols, adding a "Merry Christmas!" at the end.

Bonnie suffered for fifteen years from arthritis in her knees. Until she got Medicare, treatment was too expensive.

"I can really walk without it," said Landon, taking a few small steps.

"See!"

But sometimes wealth isn't found in a wallet. It thrives in the spirit.

And that's always been payment enough for Doctor Nichols.

"You're a good man," Landon smiled.

"You're a good woman," Nichols returned before they both shared a laugh.

Despite the title, David Nichols is no longer a 'doctor' on the island.

He is rather a father and an advocate.

On a shrinking island in the Chesapeake Bay, in a dwindling town at its center, Doctor David Nichols made it his mission to build something permanent.

The concrete foundation for Tangier's new clinic is a result of years of fundraising, and an insurance policy for people who have no insurance.

With a heart as big as the Chesapeake Bay is blue, Dr. Nichols teamed with Riverside Medical Group and found a way to care for an island long after he leaves the people he's grown to love for the last time.

"I've always felt that I was lucky enough to be a physician," said Nichols, "and all physicians should give back."

"And this is how I'm doing it!"

For more information on the new Tangier Island health clinic, click here.

For more information on Riverside Medical Group, click here.