No time for play for this man of service

Dr. David Michael Klein OSVALDO PADILLA / FLORIDA WEEKLY Dr. David Michael Klein sits in the waiting room at the public health department. He doesn’t want a reporter coming any further than this room. Down the hallway and through another doorway there are AIDS patients who he is treating for free today and he doesn’t want them to be seen.

“There’s a very high level of confidentiality with AIDS patients. If I see one of them walking on the street, I can’t even wave to them,” he says.

While Dr. Klein will tell you that he likes the exposure he receives from his extensive public service work, it is the patients who matter most.

“I’m driven, meticulous, a little narcissistic; I wouldn’t deny that, I like the applause, no doubt about it. But if it was just about that, I couldn’t do it. I want to be able to look back and say I did everything I could possibly do to help humankind,” he says.

It’s this dichotomy, the somewhat vainglorious paired with the untiringly altruistic that defines and drives Dr.Klein. Throughout his 31 years as an ophthalmologist in Port Charlotte, he has gone out of his way to help others. It’s difficult to list all of the groups and boards he has been a part of throughout the years. He is on the board of directors at Edison Community College, an institution he feels is at the heart of Southwest Florida’s evolution and survival. “When people lose work they go back to college,” he said. He has served on practically every nonprofit board in Charlotte County, from the United Way, where he was president twice, to the Education Foundation, where he served as president once. He’s been with the Boy Scouts, the Salvation Army, and the Harry Chapin Food Bank. He and his wife of 18 years, Stephanie, hosted a fundraiser for the Charlotte Symphony at their home recently. Alongside Dr. Mark Asperilla, he launched the Virginia B. Andes Volunteer Community Clinic for the under-insured and working poor. He’s especially proud of his involvement with Honor Flight, an organization that pays to have World War II veterans flown to Washington D.C. so that they can be honored at the national WWII Memorial.

Community involvement has been one of the keys to his business success. “I don’t do it to promote my business, but it makes you understand the community and what people want,” he said.

He has spent decades cultivating a loyal clientele and he admits that locating his practice in one of the top retirement markets in the country was no accident. “I figured I could grow with the community and vice versa,” he said.

Being an obsessively hard worker hasn’t hurt either. Dr. Klein doesn’t fish or boat or play tennis. His hobby, he says, is volunteering his time and working at places like the AIDS clinic.

“My great grandfather came to this country and was living in a tenement. There were six families sharing one bathroom. Now, I live in a house with four bathrooms. In America you can apply yourself and anything is possible.”

So on this day, he applies himself to looking over the files of a handful of AIDS patients who don’t have the money or insurance to pay for the care necessary to keep them healthy. Dr. Klein enjoys the work, because he has witnessed so much progress within the last 13 years.

The widespread use of protease inhibitors, a class of drugs used to treat AIDS and hepatitis C, turned the tide in the fight against the HIV virus. Patients who were once given a death sentence to be lived out in emaciated agony and ostracism now can take their medicines, modify their lifestyle and lead productive lives. Management of the disease requires frequent blood tests and analysis from doctors who take the genetic information of a patient’s virus and try to customize their treatments.

“It’s really not that hard,” he says, leaning forward with a slight smile. “Now, you look at the plumber who was under my sink yesterday getting that fixed, now that’s hard.”

And with that, the man who describes himself as “a little narcissistic” displays his modesty and his appreciation for the worth of humankind. 