Dr. Bob was born in New York City. An unusual place for someone who became such a lover of wilderness and things far from the concrete jungle. His family moved to Texas when he was five years old. Lived outside of Houston in a small community known as Seabrook, near a slightly better known region, Clear Lake where he went to high school and played baseball.
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At an early age he became athletic and stuck with athletics throughout high school and early college. Once he quit competing he became fairly dedicated to training for health with both resistance training and cardiovascular training as part of his lifestyle all the way through college, medical school and into his adulthood.
He attended college at Sam Houston State University where he was convinced by his mentor and Cell Biology professor to give up his idea of becoming a fisheries biologist and consider medical school. After taking the MCAT and scoring well, he decided to throw his hat into the ring and just go ahead and apply to the schools in Texas. After interviewing at the University of Texas school systems, he fell in love with UT Southwestern and ranked that school number one, which eventually had him on the hook for going to medical school.
He appreciated his education at UT Southwestern realizing it prepared him well. Graduating right at the 10th percentile of his class gave him the opportunity to go into whatever field he wished. He realized he was born to be a surgeon, but after four years of medical he also realized he was not a fan of the hospitals. By this time in his career he was already starting to sniff the fact that there was a lot of questionable practice in medicine. He had also discovered Alaska, having traveled there to work on a commercial fishing boat in the summer between college and med school. Since he knew he wanted to be in Alaska, and he dreamed of opening his own fishing lodge, emergency medicine seemed like a logical choice, and once again he was able to attend the program that he ranked first. After completing a residency in emergency medicine at Methodist Hospital of Indianapolis, he was ready for his new life to begin. As luck would have it, a job was available on the Kenai peninsula, the area he had fallen in love with the first time we visited Alaska. He moved up there, started practicing medicine at Central Peninsula Hospital and immediately turned his off shift attention to building a hunting and fishing lodge.
Within three years of arriving to Alaska, All Alaska Outdoors Lodge became a reality. He had obtained his pilots license and captains license during his residency years and began guiding on the rivers and flying and exploring Alaska in his first aircraft, a Piper Super Cub.
He quickly realized his heart was in flying, and obtained his commercial an instrument rating and eventually started flying for his own fishing lodge. He worked his way up through flying 185’s to a de Havilland Beaver which he still owns to this day. Nowadays, he spends around 100 days a summer piloting a commercial bush plane taking people on the adventure of a lifetime.
He plodded along in his medical career, successfully treating somewhere around 60,000 patients in what spanned a 27 year career. By the end, what plagues most ER doctors got him, he was just flat burnt out. He was starting to see patients in his own age range afflicted with the metabolic diseases that ravage this country. In 2014 he decided to train with Cenegenics, a company built by doctors, with a vision of health and wellness achieved through a proactive, integrative medicine design. Of all the training he had in his entire life, this was probably the most impactful. He was at an age where the ADLs were starting to get rough. 100 days of bush activity a summer, flying and guiding, while trying to practice full-time emergency medicine, raise a family, coach baseball and all of the other things, was starting to become more difficult at the same time that his energy level and drive was starting to decline. Turning to Health And Wellness medicine changed all of that. Once he applied the knowledge he learned from the literature that is readily available in this domain, his life and body transformed.
By 2017 he had discontinued his practice at Central Peninsula Hospital and started to focus more on health and wellness and building his private practice. He continue to work in some small hospitals to provide expert emergency care in rural areas where the need was underserved. Eventually, the development of the Covid pandemic and all of its baggage was more than he could tolerate, and he completely resigned from all forms of reactive medicine. He now practices solely in a concierge style practice with a small group of patients focused on learning the most about their pre-existing risk and how to mitigate the chance of a bad outcome. A blended model of medicine is provided by Dr. Bob, reaching first for lifestyle but still including conventional medication when indicated and necessary.
Dr. Ledda’s Prescription for Success:
Number 1: Go with what fits your personality the most.
Number 2: Be willing to reassess your needs often.
Number 3: Be a champion for your own health.
Connect with Dr. Ledda
email: bobledda@alaska.net Phone: 907-953-0473 Lodge Website: allalaska.com Notable quotes from Dr. Ledda’s interview:
The ER physicians’ problem is to find out what the patient’s chief compliant is. When your job is to seek complaints…well, I’ve made the point.
I was luckier than I was good, but I was also good.
Emergency medicine is about 20 percent joy, and 80 percent misery.
I didn’t go down there to save my own butt. I’m going to save other people’s butts.
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