HEART TO HEART
A cardiologist tells young
women they can have it all
Written by SHARON ALMIRALL
Photography by STEVE GROER
Some people simply know from the time they
are small children just what they want to do
when they grow up. Actually, many children
declare, “I want to be a fireman” or “I want to
be a cowboy.”
Some say it and then follow through, because they do
know what it is they aspire to be. Cinthia Tjan Bateman, M.D.,
an interventional cardiologist at South Denver Cardiology
Associates, is one such person.
“I came here to this country from Indonesia when I was
4,” Dr. Bateman says. “My father was a physician, and he
would come home and talk about his patients. He might say
that the patient is short of breath and explain that to us.
“I grew up knowing I wanted to be a doctor. I did rounds
with him, I filed for him, I did EKGs with him. I was involved
in his work in medicine from early on,” she adds.
Being in close contact with a doctor and father she calls an
amazing person soon lit the fire of passion to be in health care
for this young woman, a role model for all people who set
their personal bars of achievement high. She has worked hard
to arrive at the place she is now, an attending cardiologist at
four different medical facilities in the metro area. While earning
her stripes in medicine, she has also managed to raise a
family in partnership with her husband, who is also in the field
of medicine.
While she admits that it is necessary to “give up a lot of things and to rely on a support system” to balance both a
demanding field and the needs of a family, Bateman’s
mission as a role model is to show that young women
can have it all. She credits the Colorado culture with being
supportive of her as a careerist and family woman at the
same time.
Moving here from New York has been a positive change
in her life experience, as she has found the culture here to
be conducive to a balanced life. She and her husband,
Mike, relocated in Colorado, where Mike’s parents had
retired in Breckenridge.
“We came out here for a vacation and are now in our third
year as of this coming July. Mike is a plastic surgeon. We
matched our residencies together, looked for jobs together,”
she explains.
Having family life as a priority is important to Dr. Bateman,
as it was to her own family of origin. In an early experience in
New York, she did not observe that family was a priority at
some medical facilities, and today, she appreciates Colorado’s
regard for family.
“There were so many female cardiologists in New York.
They had families. They (the medical facilities) expected a
lot from you. They didn’t say ‘oh, because you have two
children at home, you don’t have to take calls tonight,’” she
explains. This has led Bateman to put in the maximum
amount of effort to assure that she isn’t criticized for being
a female physician who can’t accomplish a lot because of
family pressures.
“My role modeling would involve showing women that it is
not necessarily easy. You need to just do it,” she comments.
Though Dr. Bateman considers herself tough, she does
have a softer side. She thinks about bringing snacks in for the
groups she talks to about health issues. And she is a dedicated
soccer mom who attends the games of her two daughters,
10 years old and almost 12, and hangs out with other
soccer parents. She has taken her children to the hospital,
where they’ve made the rounds, just as her father did with
her so many years ago.
“When I was feeling really guilty about not being home,
my daughter said she wanted to be a heart doctor. That does
help me feel better about my schedule,” she exclaims.
Dr. Bateman explains how it is she started her family early
in life: “I met my husband after college. I moved to St. Louis
for a year to work in neurology as a research assistant, and
my husband was working there already. We both wanted to
go into medical school, and while we were applying, we took
a full year off and traveled throughout the Northwest and
Southwest and worked on the ski slopes.
“We then went to Syracuse for medical school, got married
after the first year and had Emily and Allison, our two
daughters, during second and fourth year of medical school. I
had my pharmacology finals a few days after Emily was born. “Anyway, medicine was something we both wanted to
do before we met. It just worked out. I think we both
always wanted to have a family, although it was definitely
earlier than expected.”
Although Dr. Bateman followed in her dad’s footsteps,
she says she always wanted to be a mom like her own
mom was. “That’s probably why I thought of baking cookies
for my talk. It’s totally something my mom would have
done,” she adds.
It’s a bit of history repeating itself to hear her daughter
declare her professional goal as she did when she was young.
Dr. Bateman’s parents had four children, and though her
father was a doctor, Indonesia was politically unstable. While
the families of her parents resisted, her mother pushed her
husband and children to relocate to America. They settled in
Long Island, where her father associated himself with Nassau
Hospital, now part of the Winthrop South Nassau University
Health System.
Dr. Bateman entered Lehigh University in Bethlehem,
Pa., in 1989, later earning a degree in behavioral neuroscience.
From 1994 to ‘98, she studied at SUNY Health
Science Center in Syracuse, N.Y., and earned her medical
degree in 1998.
In 2000 and 2001, Dr. Bateman was an assistant chief resident
in internal medicine at the North Shore University
Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., following stints from 1998 to
2001 as an intern and resident.
She became an interventional cardiology fellow in 2004 at
the North Shore University-Long Island Jewish Medical
Center in Manhasset after her work as a cardiology fellow at
that facility. Interventional cardiology is a branch of cardiology
that deals specifically with the catheter-based treatment of
structural heart diseases.
Her first thought was to become a pediatrician. “Up until
the time I had kids, I thought I would go into pediatrics. But
once I had children, I realized I had a hard time seeing sick
kids. It would be very difficult for me to watch what their
parents go through,” she says. As a mother, Dr. Bateman
knows how tough it would be to observe one’s own child
suffering from a serious illness. She would find it difficult to
compartmentalize her feelings into the roles of cardiologist
and of motherhood.
Intimidated by the prospect of getting into cardiology
because she didn’t think she would be able to receive a
fellowship, Dr. Bateman held back. She recalls, ”In the hospital
I was in, there was a group of guys who had a sort of
fraternity, and I felt intimidated by that. During my second
year of residency, my confidence level had grown, and I
decided to become a cardiologist. By the time I was in residency,
I already had two kids. I think the intimidation had
been a factor because I just never wanted anyone to look at
me and say that I had two kids so my work was naturally
not as good.”
Today Dr. Bateman is an attending cardiologist at Porter
Adventist Hospital, Swedish Medical Center, Littleton
Adventist Hospital and Craig Hospital. She is licensed in both
New York and Colorado. She was named Cardiology Fellow of
the Year in New York in 2002.
As part of her responsibilities with South Denver Heart
Center, she presents programs on women’s health. “When I
first started, they asked me to give a conference about
women’s health at Porter Hospital,” she says. “At the time, I
didn’t have a strong interest in women’s health but realized
there weren’t a lot of women cardiologists south, so I felt I
needed to do it. Since that time, I have given lectures to
physicians and to women about risks of cardiac disease in
women. Recently, we have been giving lectures at the heart
center, open to all who are interested.”
The topics are basic and include the prevalence and prevention
of heart disease, risk factors and so on. Since she
started, she realizes more needs to be done. She says, “I
have many young women patients who have had heart
attacks. Many problems were missed by traditional testing.
They are amazing women who are having a hard time
because they are so young — to think that they have heart
disease and stents and heart muscle damage. “So we are now starting a women’s support group for
those women under the age of 60 who suffered a heart
attack or a stroke. The idea is to give them support by
meeting other women who went through similar events.
They feel odd when they go to rehab. They have a lot of emotions, and I think they would benefit if they meet others
like them.
“The plan is to have a meet-and-greet for our first meeting.
Our second meeting, hopefully, will involve Rick
Collins, the cooking cardiologist,
to have a cooking class
as a group. Again, the idea is
for them to bond and have
fun and learn about health in
a special setting. I am definitely
open to suggestions,
as this is in its infancy.”
Coming from a happy
family, a family that now
includes not only her three
siblings but also 10 grandchildren,
is a good experience
for her parents. “My
dad is very proud that I
became a doctor, but I think
he always expected it. I
think I might be more proud
of him than he is of me. He
came to another country,
had four kids, didn’t drive a
car, didn’t speak English. I’d
have to say I’m awfully
proud of him.”
Carrying the thought that
someone can have a professional
life and a personally
fulfilling life, too, Dr. Bateman concludes that she would
say to girls that if you really want to do something, you can
do it. You don’t have to pick just being a career person or
being a mom. You can do both.
