A Life of Compassion and Service Dr. Brian Johnston

1961, at age 23, Brian Johnston joined the Peace Corps. Originally from Los Angeles, California, he was sent to Masbate, a remote island in the Philippines, to teach English and science. Upon arrival at the village where he was stationed, he quickly learned his assignment was far more complex than he imagined.

After he started teaching, Johnston noticed children began to miss school and would not return. When he asked local teachers where the kids were, they evasively responded, “On vacation, sir.” This only made him more dubious because he knew there were no vacations for the people of Masbate. Eventually, he learned the truth.

“I found out the children were dying,” Johnston said. “They would get diarrhea and the dehydration killed them. In that culture, you don’t give bad news to an outsider. Local doctors told me they were dying of cholera.”

Moved by this information, he began using an old Jeep that had been dropped off by military aircraft to transport sick children, some only a few months old, 14 miles across the island to the only hospital. Sometimes, while driving through the rainy jungle at night, the Jeep would get stuck in mud, leaving them stranded until dawn. Not all the children survived the journey.

At the hospital, doctors informed him the cholera outbreak was ravaging the island. In response, Johnston adopted a preventative approach, teaching the local village about the germ theory of disease and the steps to stop the spread of bacteria. But as the death toll rose, it was clear Johnston’s message wasn’t making the impact he’d hoped. “Germ theory just didn’t fit with their lived experience at that time,” Johnston said.

Johnston did all he could for the people of Masbate before being reassigned by the Peace Corps to an adjacent provincial hospital and ultimately to the Philippine General Hospital in Manila. This was when he resolved that when he returned to Los Angeles, he would go to medical school and become a doctor.

That’s precisely what he did after completing pre-medical studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1965.

Johnston attended the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. Then he completed his internal medicine residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in 1973, which he describes as the best place to learn because county hospitals serve patients with the greatest need.

“I came to medicine with an understanding that people are good,” Johnston reflected. “They’re intelligent. But to really understand them, you have to really know who they are, listen to them and try to understand what they’re saying from their perspective. It made me more interested in the lives of the patients I see as contrasted with the diseases they have. I’d also have to include my religious background. I am a practicing Quaker.”

Johnston’s faith, Peace Corps experience and childhood experiences informed his compassionate approach to medicine (in 1949, Johnston and his family moved to Ajijic, Mexico, just south of Guadalajara, where he lived for four years. In Ajijic, he learned how to speak Spanish and the complexities of village life and culture, which imbued him with great empathy for others).

Johnston joined Adventist Health White Memorial in 1975 in the Emergency Department. His compassion, fearlessness and deep empathy have defined his work as a physician for over 49 years.

One day in the early 1980s, paramedics brought to the Emergency Department an emaciated young man found dead in the street with a temperature of 105 degrees. A few days later, the same paramedics brought in a second young man, who had been found emaciated, dead and with a high fever. When Johnston asked where they found him, the paramedics said they had found him on the street under the First Street bridge crossing the Los Angeles River.

When paramedics took him there, he found an unhoused community of drug-addicted people, many of whom were HIV positive and close to succumbing to the disease’s devastating effects. Johnston responded by giving them his business card and invited them to seek medical care at Adventist Health White Memorial. That simple act of extending care grew into the Homeless Outreach Program.

“I would go visit them and maintain contact,” Johnston said. “Some of the nurses wanted to go with me, so we would take items they could use like clothes, blankets, water and bibles. But the most important thing was touching [their hearts], looking them in the eye and recognizing their dignity and humanity.”

The Homeless Outreach Program, comprised of chaplains, nurses, doctors and staff, ran for more than 30 years until the COVID-19 pandemic paused the program. The program’s legacy of compassionate care for our most vulnerable community residents is evident in innovative Adventist Health White Memorial programs like the Homeless Health Navigation Program. that continue to serve our unhoused neighbors throughout the community.

Throughout his career, Johnston has treated thousands of patients holding various leadership positions at Adventist Health White Memorial, including Medical Director of the Emergency Department and President of the Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Staff, and has chaired the Emergency Medicine Department. He currently runs the Limb Preservation Clinic and continues to be a thought partner and advocate in the street medicine efforts in this community.

“I treat people with love, dignity and respect,” Johnston said. “I’m not here to judge. I’m here to help.”

Dr. Johnston’s extraordinary life of service, marked by compassion and care for all, embodies the mission of Adventist Health White Memorial. With your generous gift, you can help us continue his legacy of compassionate care and expand services to reach even more of those in need. Together, we can bring hope and healing to our community. Make a gift today to support the caregivers and life-saving work at Adventist Health White Memorial.