KING CITY — A Harvard-educated, patient-first ophthalmologist with 37 years of experience has joined the team of physicians at Mee Memorial Healthcare System.
Now serving patients in South Monterey County, Dr. Victor Holmes, who served his residency at Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia, is an ophthalmologist trained to diagnose, treat and manage diseases or trauma of the eye. Holmes will treat such conditions as glaucoma, corneal diseases, cataracts, retinal disorders, conjunctivitis, astigmatism and ocular tumors.
“My primary perspective on patient treatment is simple, to treat each patient like I would like to be treated,” said Holmes, a 1986 graduate of Harvard Medical School. “I sometimes ask myself what I would recommend if the patient were my mother or father or sibling. Secondly, I always try to treat each patient as a human being rather than an eye problem. That starts with listening to a patient’s complaint. It’s too easy to focus on eye disease and miss the thing that is actually bothering a patient.”
Holmes, who served his residency at Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia, added, “I think it’s important to try to understand a patient’s complaint firsthand. It makes patients more comfortable relating to a doctor who has put effort into learning their first language.”
In many cases, catching eye diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy or retinal detachment, before symptoms appear makes the difference between normal vision and permanently impaired vision.
“We recommend annual screening eye exams for patients with no eye problems aged 40 and older for this reason, and every other year for patients under 40,” he said.
Ophthalmologists differ from optometrists in that they attend medical school like all medical doctors, it enhances their ability to recognize concomitant and independent diseases during evaluations.
“The eye is the one organ which allows a direct and magnified view of blood vessels and nerves,” he said. “As a result we are able to diagnose and refer patients for a variety of diseases affecting other parts of the body.”
Still close to his 11 siblings, Holmes believes in family, and is the father of two adult children, a 27-year-old son who works as an investment banker and an 18-year-old daughter, a freshman at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Mee Memorial Healthcare System includes a hospital in King City and a number of comprehensive outpatient clinics, an occupational health services clinic and the Albert and Donna Oliveira Clinic in Greenfield.
