The Heart and Expertise to Create Healthier Communities: Vein & Vascular Experts

It is fitting that every day when Dr. Gus De Jesus walks into his clinic in South Lakeland he heads into a building that has a bank vault in it.

The 46-year-old Puerto Rican born De Jesus and his family are fully invested in Lakeland, and the completely renovated Vein and Vascular Experts building that was formerly a Fifth Third Bank branch is a foundation to build the practice into wherever God leads him next.

“When I see someone in my office, it’s not just a job, it’s a calling,” De Jesus says. “We’re motivated by making this community stronger, better and healthier, and educating people to make sure that we can put them on that path.”

In 2012 De Jesus moved to Lakeland, and he worked at Bartow Hospital and then Choice Healthcare in North Lakeland before opening Vein and Vascular Experts in 2017. In the 12 years since he became a Lakelander, the population of Polk County has exploded from around 615,000 to nearly 800,000, and De Jesus is positioning his practice to help and educate as many people as possible.

VVE currently serves patients in South Lakeland and at a smaller location in Auburndale, and De Jesus is keen on adding a location in Plant City, where eventually the newly hired Dr. Kimberly Corbitt will work out of.

“There are gaps in vascular surgery all across the country, especially in Florida,” De Jesus says. “If you ask me what our one year, five year, and 10 year plan is, we basically want to triangulate the central Florida corridor, the I-4 corridor.”

If you’re curious or uncertain what vascular health is all about, you’re not alone. Much of modern medicine is compartmentalized into distinct subspecialties, but as De Jesus and his team will tell you, your vascular health is all tied into the main switchboard of your entire body.

“Every single organ in your body has arteries and veins, so it is impossible for me to compute everything in a compartment where, ‘This is just vascular,’” he says. “When you have eye problems, it could be a vascular problem. When you have kidney problems, it could be a vascular problem. Skin issues, vascular problem. And when you see people with risk factors like aneurysms, they are a dangerous condition that could rupture and be life-threatening.”

The clinic is also highly regarded for its treatment options for varicose veins.

He notes that “your body keeps score” and risk factors such as smoking, diabetes and what he calls a “toxic food environment” that most Americans are naive to contribute to why people end up with vascular and/or vein challenges.

De Jesus and his team take every opportunity to educate patients, as well as family and friends that accompany patients, about ways to prevent vascular issues, such as walking and exercising frequently and being intentional about what you are putting in your body.

“She is a a very humble and approachable individual…I know that she fits Lakeland, and this community is going to love her.”

– Dr. Gus De Jesus on Dr. Kimberly Corbitt

The recent hire of CJ Birge and Nestor Guerrero as nurse practitioners, as well as bringing in Dr. Corbitt proves De Jesus is set on making the greatest impact possible in a community that he says he believes God has placed him in with a purpose.

The 33-year-old Corbitt, who was born in Orlando and attended Ocoee High School before embarking on the long and intense journey to become a surgeon, said she is excited to work with and for someone who has a great reputation and can relate to the challenges that come with the profession.

“He has kind of already been through some of the bumps in the road,” she says. “And I could just tell by talking to him that he’s well experienced and everything you could want in a mentor.” 

Corbitt became interested in the medical field when she dual enrolled in some EMT classes in high school, and she enjoys vein and vascular work specifically because of the variety of different cases she sees and how she can help make transformative impacts in patient’s lives.

She has long sought to find her way back to Central Florida, but she had never spent a moment in Lakeland. Now that she and her husband, Dr. Devlin McCormick, who is a trauma acute care surgeon at Lakeland Regional Health, have settled into the Swan City, she can’t believe how fortunate they are to have ended up here..

“It has every feature you could ever want in a town…as far as a lot of restaurants, things to do outdoors, parks, and you’re close to other major cities,” she says. “It’s kind of a small town secret or something…and I hope they keep it that way.”

She does want to provide solutions to as many health problems as possible and help people realize that most of the time someone doesn’t just wake up with pain in their calves or swollen veins, it is usually an accumulation of years of chronic health issues that have been building up.

“God brought her to our doorstep,” De Jesus said. “She is a very humble and approachable individual….I know that she fits Lakeland, and this community is going to love her.”