L. Jack Clark wanted to be a neurosurgeon when he grew up, so he started working as a nursing technician at Georgia Baptist Hospital while he was in high school during the early 1960s.

When he took an intensive, two-week course to learn how to perform enemas and catheterizations, Clark discovered that some of his peers had more exciting jobs — riding in ambulances.

"So I applied [to work in ambulances], but what they needed was people for a developing field called oxygen therapy," said Clark, RRT, CRT, PA. "I soon discovered that oxygen therapists got in on all the great cases. It was exciting, and I got plenty of on-the-job training."

Clark was hooked. He has been a pioneer and a "go-to" guy for respiratory therapy since he graduated from Emory University's Crawford Long Hospital School of Respiratory Therapy in 1967.

"My professors were physicians, who taught us the way they were taught. We learned to assess situations and modify things to make them better," Clark said.

At age 20, Clark was appointed assistant chief respiratory therapist at Grady Memorial Hospital, where he stayed on the cutting edge of the emerging specialty. Clark and other respiratory therapists were beginning to perform invasive procedures, such as arterial punctures, nasal intubations, arterial catheterizations and new techniques in tracheotomy, critical-care ventilation and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

Two years later, Clark became the chief respiratory therapist and administrative director of the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon. His research led him to explore neonatal and pulmonary specialty care. He established the state's fourth neonatal intensive-care unit and became a physician assistant and clinical preceptor for Emory University's physician assistant program.

Born into an entrepreneurial family, Clark took respiratory care into the home-health arena in 1979 by founding Mid Georgia Respiratory Homecare. Clark believed that if people's respiratory needs could be met at home, they'd be happier and it would be less costly than staying in the hospital.

But after years of 20-hour days, Clark burned out at 39 and suffered a clogged artery in his heart. He realized that he had to learn to balance work and life. "I am a driven, Type A, self-destructive, recovering workaholic," Clark said.

He reversed his heart disease with the help of angioplasty and a behavioral psychologist. In the process, he learned a new approach to respiratory therapy.

"You have to treat the whole person," Clark said. "I was taught nothing about wellness in my early training, but in the last decade I've realized that I have a job to keep people well."

For three decades, Clark and his staff at MGR Homecare have been helping people who are on life support go home. The company accepts cases and writes protocols for patients whom other agencies consider too high a risk, including low-paying or no-paying patients and those who need palliative care or in-patient hospice.

Maintaining a thriving practice allows Clark to take on indigent case. Because he is a part-owner of a plane, Clark can treat patients 130 miles from his office in Griffin.

"I can manage those cases and the risk, because I keep things incredibly simple and can move people beyond their fears about going home and managing their respiratory conditions," he said. "My role is to be coach, guide and mentor to patients, families and health care facilities."

Clark spends about 60 hours with patients as they transition from the hospital to home, writing detailed care plans and teaching them about their illnesses, care, nutrition and need for emotional support — whatever he believes is necessary to care for the whole person. For one patient he recommended a high-protein diet to combat skin breakdowns and wound infections. He often suggests supplements to provide nutrients that have been stripped out of food by processing or cooking.

Clark gives patients booklets on various topics from his research and experience in wellness and respiratory care. He spends at least one day a week researching and writing for professional journals or for his newsletter.

"Whenever I'm musing on something — how to avoid, cure or prevent a situation — I write it down. I enjoy developing the briefs and know that it helps patients and doctors," Clark said.

Clark says he doesn't fish or play tennis in his spare time. He does what he loves to do: read about, write on and practice his specialty.

"I've had a great career," he said. "I do good work and have great outcomes, and that's my biggest satisfaction."