An Unexpected Life
Rob Cole M.D. is an Associate Medical Director of Hospice of the East Bay. He founded a private practice in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1986 in Walnut Creek, California, where he also raised his family. His practice thrived for 25 years. At the age of forty-nine he was diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma. Surgical therapy appeared to be successful, but his cancer returned and the radical surgery required ended his surgical and obstetrical career. He then worked in industry in molecular diagnostics and continued to fight his cancer, which again returned more advanced at stage four. He sought out experimental immunotherapy at the National Cancer Institute, which ultimately failed. With few options, he began a new experimental protocol, and he has been declared cancer free. During his 16-year path of experimental treatment for his cancer, Dr. Cole studied and researched ways to remain calm while facing a terminal diagnosis. While still in treatment, he returned to clinical medicine, this time Hospice and Palliative care, hoping to find a path to his own grace. In hospice medicine and meditative practice, he found that calm that had previously been so elusive.