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and PICU, an unusual length of time for a resident.
banquets together since we were in elementary school.”
“There are no simple decisions in the ICU. The pressure’s always
on. If I hadn’t spent so much time there so quickly, I probably would
have chosen that as my career,” he said.
Dr. Thompson’s musical education started with piano lessons
and violin before he moved to string bass for the middle school
orchestra around 7th grade. After that, he quickly graduated to
electric bass and began playing with his sister at the family church,
Third Central United Christian Church.
“Medicine is a puzzle. Give me all the clues you can give me. Let
me ask you some more you didn’t think about and let’s see if we can
solve the puzzle. I spent so much time in the NICU that I got good
at solving those puzzles.”
It was in general pediatrics that Dr. Thompson found his calling.
He spent one rotation at Springs Pediatrics, the doctor’s office which
would eventually become his office and second home.
“I wasn’t going to go into general pediatrics because I remembered
my dad’s waiting room, but when I finished the rotation something
changed. I was here for a whole month, and I started to see families a few times over. I saw how integrated pediatricians can really
become with their patients and I realized how fun it was. I said to
myself that life is supposed to be fun, so let’s do it. Now 20 years
later, I’m taking care of kids whose parents used to be my patients.
There aren’t many specialties that get to do that.”
In recent years, Springs Pediatrics merged with six other physician
groups to form ONE Pediatrics, which serves more than 50,000
children and their families. “We’re growing as other providers are
starting to look to us as a model of care. Hopefully we’ll be able to
expand this model beyond just pediatrics soon.”
As a practicing pediatrician, Dr. Thompson has specialized in
making patients feel better for more than 20 years. But, he’s long
had another avenue used to make people feel good, spending his
free time as a multi-instrumentalist and versatile gospel, R&B and
jazz musician.
Dr. Thompson has been playing instruments since fourth grade,
thanks in part to his older sister LeRonda, who is now a schoolteacher.
“If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be playing at all. We’ve played
family reunions, medical meeting banquets and dad’s fraternity
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Once he got to college at the University of Louisville, Dr. Thompson joined the Black Diamond Choir as a bassist, playing for them
all through college and medical school and into residency. “They
were excellent and a lot of fun to play with. There was no way they
were letting me sing so I had to stick to playing bass for them.”
Over the years, Dr. Thompson has pursued countless musical
projects including Counterpoint, Spur of the Moment and Rockdox, a band featuring nearly a dozen physicians from throughout
Louisville including Drs. Gerry Rabalais, Mark Dethrage, Joni
Wooldridge and Frank Burns.
Dr. Thompson also played bass on Keith Hunter’s gospel album
“God is Still Moving” which went gold in the late 1980s, and he
toured Switzerland playing bass with the Voices of Gospel two
years in a row.
“That was so much fun. We played in seven different cities in
about 10 days each time we went. I thought it was a good amount,
almost like a vacation. I don’t know if I’d enjoy being on the road
for six months, but those were two really fun times in my life.”
His musical inspiration began early, listening to his older brother,
Everard Thompson, wail on the electric bass. “My brother is 12 years
older than I and he’s an amazing bass player. He’s serious. With
him being the bigger brother, I idolized him,” Dr. Thompson said.
Another of Dr. Thompson’s biggest musical influences is legendary
bassist Victor Wooten, whom he actually got to meet after seeing
him play during medical school.
“A friend invited me to check out this band, Bela Fleck and the
Flecktones. I didn’t have any interest. I was a purist about music
back then and didn’t like anything with synthesizers. So I made a
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