KCTV 5Faces of Kansas City: Cardiologist with a big heart

To tell you Dr. Willie Lawrence is a credit to his profession is an understatement - a massive understatement.

"Taking care of patients is a privilege," said Lawrence.

Many of his patients said the cardiologist is a doctor with a huge heart which is fitting as he was recently named as the American Heart Association's National Physician of the Year.

Lawrence said he's both honored and humbled with the award.

"Most of us spend our life trying to find some worth, trying to contribute to this world in which we live," he said.

While Kansas City has been his home for the last two decades, Lawrence grew up in Cleveland. But his world was turned upside down at the age of 15 when his father died.

"I always wondered. He went into the hospital not very sick and never came out. I always wondered ‘what kind of care did he get, had he gotten better care would the outcome have been different?'" said Lawrence.

That's when his mother went back to school to become a nurse and his interest in health care took shape. Pictures he has show him as a pre-med student at Harvard.  It was the lessons he learned from his mother that drove him to excel.

"I was so proud of her, so respectful of what she had done," he said. "She was a woman who raised three children by herself."

After college, he and his wife agreed to plant roots in Chicago but that soon changed.

"I responded to an ad in the New England Journal of Medicine that said ‘cardiologist wanted in the most desired city in the Midwest' and we said ‘that's obviously Chicago' in all our east coast arrogance. It turned out to be Kansas City. I came out here and just fell in love with it," said Lawrence.

And he's been here ever since, working at Research Medical Center and focusing his practice on helping those in the inner city.

Lawrence replaced two of LaDanity Hudgens' heart valves.  She said, throughout the entire process, he wasn't just concerned about her condition - he showed genuine care for her as a person. 

"He's like a big gentle giant.  I'm sorry but he is," she said amongst laughs.

Lawrence appreciates the accolades and awards but admits it leaves him aching for the past. 

"I think about times in my life when I've been proud of something.  I think, 'gee, I wish my Dad could see that I made something good of myself,'" he said.

Lawrence said his dad was a smoker and didn't exercise and that's one of the reasons he volunteers for the American Heart Association and encourages others to lead a healthy lifestyle. 

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