Faces of St. Peter's: Kyon A. Hood, M.D.
That unusual first name? “My dad made it up,” explains Kyon A. Hood, M.D., a pediatric emergency medicine physician who works for EmCare at The Children’s Hospital at Saint Peter’s University Hospital.
That unusual first name? "My dad made it up,” explains Kyon A. Hood, M.D., a pediatric emergency medicine physician who works for EmCare at The Children’s Hospital at Saint Peter’s University Hospital. “My parents were hippies.” After high school in Des Moines, Iowa, he biked and hiked around the country before launching his career. A graduate of the Harvard University Extension School, he earned his medical degree at St. George’s Medical School in Grenada and completed his residency in pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick. Dr. Hood, 41, and his wife, Marie, 39, a registered nurse who manages his practice, live in East Brunswick. They are raising her children from a previous marriage, Jourdan, 20, Darrian, 16, and Tristan, 15, and their own children, Ethan, 8, and Benjamin, 5.
From biking to medicine? How did that happen? When I moved to Kentucky at 18 and volunteered at a Louisville homeless shelter for children, I realized I wanted to work with kids for the rest of my life. It was an epiphany. A few years later I decided I could have the biggest influence on children—and best be their advocate—by being a pediatrician.
Besides running your own pediatrics practice in East Brunswick, you work in the Saint Peter's pediatric emergency room. Why? During my residency I wavered between neonatal intensive care and emergency medicine. I decided I like the excitement of the ER. There I get to do more procedures—like suturing cuts and splinting broken bones—than I do in my office.
What were the highlights of your travels? At 21 I rode from Kentucky to Iowa by myself. I also cycled from Boston to Bar Harbor, Maine, one year. I’ve backpacked all over the country.
Do you still bike and hike? I haven’t lately, but for this summer we’re planning our second family trip to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming—my favorite place on earth.
