Dr. Joe Arocha came to the county from Miami.
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Dr. Joe Arocha comes to the county by way of Miami, Fla.
By LAURA THORNBURG
Staff
After dealing with the loss of a child, 21-year-old Devin Arocha, Dr. Joe Arocha (pronounced A-row-shuh) describes his arrival to Sparta as "destiny." Coming to the area by way of Miami, Fla., he has been working in the office of Dr. John Kovacich for about a month.
Arocha explained he and wife Mayra—who he describes as his "pillar"—visited the area "…and we loved it and obviously we were going through some bad times. We fell in love with the place and fell in love with the people here and we decided this was going to be our next home." After losing their second son, 25-year-old George Darna, just under a year ago, the couple decided to return to the mountains of North Carolina.
In the process, the couple met Kovacich and Alleghany Memorial Hospital CEO Ralph Castillo, and learned from friend Edwin Barquet of potential employment.
Arocha commented,"…it just so happened that I was talking to Ralph Castillo and John was looking for somebody and we said, 'This must be destiny.'"
A native of Miami, Arocha had an 11-year stint as a nurse and has been working as a doctor for the last 16 years.
When asked about the desire to go into the medical field, Arocha replied, "I always wanted to know everything; I was very curious. I loved medicine, so I became a nurse first…I used that as a steppingstone to become a doctor."
Arocha put himself through school at Florida International University, where he majored in biology and minored in chemistry. From there, Arocha attended the University of Miami School of Medicine, doing residency at the University of Miami's Medical Campus (now Jackson Memorial Hospital) as an internist.
"As a nurse, I worked in the MICU, medical intensive care unit, I also worked the surgical intensive care unit in trauma and I also did emergency room work during my 11-year role in nursing. I was the charge nurse…my title was the nurse educator in the MICU; I was the nurse educator for everybody there.
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