Meet the Doctor: Dr. Irwin Kash Chris Gonsalves
	Karen Cabai put a great deal of work into finding a pediatrician. When the Fort Myers mom was pregnant with her first child four and a half years ago, she says she was determined to find only the best for her family. What she found, she says, is a physician, an advocate and a trusted partner in her family’s health. And she’d soon need all of those things in spades. Two years later, Karen and husband James found themselves expecting new additions—two to be exact—in the form of identical twin girls. “My husband and I are college-educated, we eat really well and I’m just a really picky mom,” says Cabai, who interviewed several doctors before settling on Dr. Irwin Kash. “He listened, he’s patient and, without fail, he does his research. He wants to take good care of your kids, but he also wants you to know how to take good care of them as well.” Kash has been practicing in Southwest Florida for 32 years and says he sees himself foremost “as the patient’s advocate.” A big differentiator for Kash’s practice is the amount of time he spends with patients. While the industry standard for a routine office visit is eight to 10 minutes, a checkup with Kash goes 30 to 45 minutes. “I think of the whole family as a unit,” he says. “It’s my goal to help them have a better life, to be more proud of themselves and to help them be healthier.” That approach paid dividends when one of Cabai’s twins was diagnosed early on with a heart murmur. “I was freaking out. I had no idea what two holes in my daughter’s heart were going to look like,” Cabai says. “Dr. Kash was like ‘Look, here’s the terminology. I know you’re going to go look it up.’ He treats you with respect, tells you his best recommendation, and that made me feel a lot more confident.” Kash took a conservative approach, feeling the murmur would correct itself, a diagnosis that proved correct. “My driving force is quality of care, doing the right thing,” he says. “That means being up to date and also never giving a patient or their child something they demand if it’s not in their best interest.” With three healthy children, Cabai says she feels lucky to have found a doctor who encourages her involvement.“My kids love Dr. Kash,” she says. “If more doctors were like him we’d all have healthier kids.”