Nick Jabre remembers long stretches of childhood summers when he couldn’t seem to catch his breath. He has asthma, but he didn’t know it until he was diagnosed at age 7. Under the care of an attentive pulmonologist, he learned to manage the condition.

The doctor “sat down with me and my family and really talked about finding the right treatment,” says Jabre, of Cincinnati, Ohio. With that guidance, Jabre never had an asthma attack severe enough to send him to the emergency room. 

He wants the same for his patients. 

The recent graduate of the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital residency program is starting a pediatric pulmonary fellowship at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

“Asthma has personal meaning to me,” he says. “But it took me a long time to realize that was the direction I wanted to pursue.”

Jabre earned a bachelor’s degree at Xavier University and a master’s degree in biology at Purdue University before going to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. His experiences at JHACH, including a second-year pulmonary rotation at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, led him to pediatric pulmonology.

During his JHACH residency, Jabre treated terrified children gasping for air in the Emergency Department. After they were admitted to the hospital, he helped determine the right combination of medications and worked with patients and families on strategies to help them stick with their treatment regimens.

“When I tell patients and families I have asthma and I’ve grown up with it and it’s tough, I see their eyes light up,” he says. “Those experiences pushed me toward pulmonology.”

When patients were ready for discharge, Jabre referred them to local pulmonologists. But he wished he could be the one to deliver the long-term care that his own pulmonologist had provided for him. Soon, he’ll be able to.

—KN