ASHEVILLE, NC, May 18, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ --- Many of us can trace the paths that we have taken in life to one defining moment, and for Dr. Irma Ruth Williams this moment occurred earlier than most. "When I was a child - 2 or 3 years old - my brother was born and he had cerebral palsy," she recalled in a candid interview with Cambridge Who's Who. Inspired by the doctors who worked with her brother (he underwent multiple surgeries between the ages of 4 and 17), she resolved that, like them, she was going to be the kind of person who changed people's lives. Now a board certified anesthesiologist in Asheville, the city of her birth, she considers her medical career to be the fulfillment of destiny: "Before I was in kindergarten [I knew] I was going to be a doctor."

Dr. Williams has been occupied with giving back ever since. As a member of VAMC Asheville from September 2008 to September 2010, she derived personal fulfillment from working with people like her father, a career soldier who saw action in both WWII and the Korean War. "My exposure to soldiers and veterans started very early in my life," she said. "I always felt comfortable and a part of their community." Her brother, despite his handicap, devoted his entire career to God and country as well, traveling all over the world to teach military children for the Department of Defense.

Driven by a decidedly outward view of her profession, Dr. Williams has participated in medical missions to such countries as the Philippines, Belize, Brazil and India, where she got the chance to work alongside Mother Teresa. Besides providing much-needed assistance to the underserved, she also savored the opportunity to challenge herself. "[Mission work] was an invaluable experience - both personally and professionally - which required us to be creative with our resources," she shared. "Being in a Third World country makes you appreciate everyday conveniences of being an anesthesiologist in America, where we take for granted monitors, equipment, drugs, and the backup of other specialists." Dr. Williams has also done her part at home, traveling across the United States to help indigent populations in inner-city and rural areas. She is proud to have worked with students and post-Katrina patients at Tulane University in New Orleans, a stint that did not come without challenges. "Tulane is a tertiary center that gets the sickest patients with some of the most rare and complicated cases. I often worked out of small rural hospitals where I might have been the only anesthesiologist," she explained.

Though set on becoming a doctor from the age of 3, Dr. Williams took a while to achieve her goal. Married at 17, she had her first child before she was 20 and for several years lived an itinerant life as a medical resident's wife, following her husband to Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boston. She worked in those days as a physician assistant, honing her skills in general surgery, emergency medicine and orthopedics, until the time came for her to pursue her own dream. Dr. Williams entered the Medical University of South Carolina at the age of 40 - not the easiest thing she has ever done, granted - and obtained her MD in 1988. She has since become a diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology and considers this among the highlights of her career. Additional affiliations include the Florida Society of Anesthesiologists and the American Society of Anesthesiologists. In 2009, she was recognized by the Consumers' Research Council of America in its Guide to America's Top Anesthesiologists, an honor that enforced her previous inclusion in the council's Guide to America's Top Physicians.

With her desire to give back as strong as ever, Dr. Williams hopes to embark on more medical missions overseas - or, if not, at least to make a positive impact on the patients that she encounters on a daily basis. Only in serving others does she find meaning in her work, she states. "I hope every person who meets me realizes that, really, what I want to do with my life is [to] improve other people's lives," she said. "That is the most important thing to me."

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