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The Columbus Community Hospital has a new cardiologist in town, with Dr. Michael D. Henderson joining the department and now available for appointments.
Henderson, a double board-certified cardiologist and internal medicine physician, brings years of experience to the rural hospital and is a familiar face to those in Colorado County, having worked at a neighboring facility, Austin Heart in La Grange, prior to accepting his position at the Columbus Community Hospital.
Henderson began his journey in the medical world by enrolling in med school at the University of Virginia in 2000. From there he joined the army and was deployed to Iraq, where he worked as a doctor before being given an ultimatum jokingly by his wife, either he chooses the army, or her.
“When I was in the army my wife said you could pick the army or her, so I chose her,” said Henderson. “I got out of the army in 2011 and went into fellowship. I finished fellowship in 2016 and that’s when I came out here, first to La Grange and now Columbus.”
His first position as a board-certified cardiologist and internal medicine physician brought him to Georgetown, Texas after finishing his fellowship in 2016.
Henderson’s biggest motivator working in the medical field is his ability to deliver quality care, something he felt he was compromising at Georgetown, opting to move to La Grange, which he felt more of the same of given that both systems were part of the Hospital Corporation of America. He says that is how he ended up in Columbus, highlighting how he wanted to get out of the HCA community but still wanted to be close enough to his patients from Austin Heart.
“The corporate world was not my thing, and they were very corporate,” said Henderson. “It was about the money for them, I didn’t want to compromise my quality of care, so I went out to La Grange but unfortunately, I was still with an HCA. I got myself out of the HCA community, the corporate world, so that I could deliver the care that I wanted to deliver. I have 2,000 patients in La Grange who have heart failure, coronary disease, arrythmia. They said I’ll just wait until Dr. Henderson gets here. I take care of people from Columbus, Eagle Lake, Sealy, Katy. I love it, it’s really where I should be. I’m a black man in Texas and I have 75-year-old white guys calling me sir because they respect my experience, it still knocks me off my feet.”
Besides working as a cardiologist for the Columbus Community Hospital seeing patients four days a week, Henderson is a father to three boys, two whom are engineers and another who is a chef. He has also been heavily involved with humanitarian works, having purchased an orphanage in Haiti in 2009, spending a majority of his time there.
When Henderson is not in Haiti with the 16 children of his orphanage, he’s in New York taking care of his mother, who suffers from mental health problems. A big part of Henderson’s decision to come to Columbus Community Hospital was the flexibility they offered him to be able to spend his time with his mother and kids at the orphanage.
“When I took this job at Columbus, I didn’t even talk about the money,” said Henderson. “I figured the money would take care of itself; I don’t even need that much money. But if I can use it to do things, for the orphanage and my mother, then that’s what matters.”
Appointments with Dr. Henderson are available at the Columbus Medical Clinic four days a week. Call 979-732-2318 to schedule a visit.
