Letter from a mother:
In 1985 I was a single mom and looking for a good pediatrician. My insurance was not all that good so I had to find one that would take my state insurance at the time. My oldest son was almost nine and my second oldest son was five. I found Dr. Glenn Cheng in St. Charles, Missouri, where I still live. Shortly after I started taking my boys to him I had better insurance and starting taking my newborn daughter to him also. Eight years after that my youngest son was born and he too became a patient.
Over the years his office moved a few times. At one time his office was almost an hour away yet I refused to go anywhere else. He has always been well worth the drive and time. He has seen my four children many times over the years. He still asks my thirteen year old about his siblings. He remembers their names, what sports they have played and other things about their life. Dr. Cheng himself has two children, one of them the same age as my youngest. He also shares the same birthday as my oldest son and myself. (We are actually the same age!)
He is the kind of doctor who you knows cares and feels like part of the family. We have always been able to call him whenever we need to. We have been out of town or it has been a weekend and one of my children have gotten sick or injured and we can always count on a call back from him pretty quickly.
I have always felt that he was a good pediatrician until the day I found out he was an excellent pediatrician and human being. My daughter was just twelve and really had only been to him for shots, check-ups and nose bleeds. Unlike my sons, she had never broken bones, got stitches or extremely sick. I had found a bump on her leg under her knee and thought maybe it was a blood clot or chipped bone. He knew right away it was an unusual bump and took blood himself from her (she was very frightened) and sent her to a bone specialist straight from his office. He gave us his personal cell phone number in case we needed him. At first it was diagnosed as a bone infection.
It turned out after a long MRI and other testing that she had Ewing Sarcoma Bone Cancer. Dr. Cheng showed up at the Children’s Hospital as soon as they called him. I remember walking down the hall towards her room and he stopped and came over to me and gave me a hug and said everything would be okay. In the back of his mind he was hoping it was not what he thought it could be he said. He then walked in smiling and talking to her. He made such a terrifying ordeal feel like it would be okay. He was also very caring and went way beyond what most doctors would. Not to mention the fact that he saved her life by reacting and getting her taken care of as soon as possible.
Dr. Cheng is still and always will be a big part of our lives. With my youngest son in sports and the fact he is a boy we get to see Dr. Cheng a good amount throughout the year. It is so important when choosing the person who will treat your child.
My hope is that every parent out there can say they have the best pediatrician there is. I know mine is.
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