It was a cold day on January 11th, 2008, when a mom brought her son for a visit to the pediatrician. She hit many dead ends before, on her quest to find any doctor who could help her autistic boy. On this day, however, Jimmy’s life was about to change forever, and this mother’s prayers would finally be answered. He entered the office of Dr. Lewis Jassey, a pediatrician in Bellmore, NY, who has carved a niche for himself in treating patients with this very challenging developmental obstacle. “When a parent stands before you, pleading for you to do anything you can to give his or her child back, it just breaks your heart”, Dr. Jassey told us. “Nothing will ever change their situation, however, unless you, as their physician, exhaust any and all means possible. You just cannot accept an autistic diagnosis and be unwilling to fight”. So Dr. Lewis Jassey straps on his medical battle gear, and joins every family who comes into his office with an autistic child in the fight against a very formidable enemy. The pediatrician of over 15 years does extensive workups on his patients with these kind of developmental delays, ranging from blood testing, to consulting with metabolic, gastrointestinal, allergy, and nutritional specialists, to prescribing a wide array of medications, to even having his patients go through a retraining of their visual, auditory, and balance centers with the use of an intricate computer program. The pediatrician from Long Island doesn’t have one shotgun approach to treating these patients, “as each child’s situation is unique in it’s own way”, Dr. Jassey points out. “When you dig deeper, you often can find a reason, or reasons, that contribute to their condition. It is the responsibility of us pediatricians to do just that. Dig deeper”. And so he does. Underlying thyroid disorders, metabolic diseases, allergies, environmental exposure, celiac disease, yeast overgrowth, and even concurrent ADHD and anxiety disorders are some of the conditions that Dr. Jassey finds when he has dug deeper. By identifying any of these underlying issues, the inspiring doctor has treated these children accordingly, and has actually seen tremendous improvements in many of his patients.

Dr. Lewis Jassey has another passion in life, besides treating kids, though. He has a love for music as well. As a rapper over the last 2 decades, he’s recorded over 100 songs, always mindful of the role model he is to the youth of today. There is one song, though, he recorded recently, which he holds very dear to his heart. “Jimmy” is the inspirational song of how one of his autistic patients overcame tremendous odds and significantly improved after Dr. Jassey treated his autism. “The song is about the struggles of Jimmy and the celebration of his victory, but it’s also symbolic of every patient I’ve ever treated with autism”, the lyrically motivated physician told us. “I attempt to take the listener inside the mind of an autistic child, as well as their parents, to teach people a little bit about what they endure”. This song has touched all that have heard it, including the folks over at “Autism Speaks”. So much so, that Dr. Lewis Jassey, aka Doc J, along with fellow rapper Stevie “Nyche” Hinds and long time producer Garth Mitchell  have partnered up with “Autism Speaks”, selling the song “Jimmy”, with 100% of the proceeds going towards autism research. In addition, Doc J and Nyche will be performing the song “Jimmy” live at the “Autism Speaks” Walk at Jones Beach for autism, on October 4th, in front of an estimated 25,000-30,000 people, to help spread the powerful message. To listen to “Jimmy”, as well as other music from Doc J, please visit Autism Speaks on line, and consider making a donation to help the other kids out there just like Jimmy. Let’s all join this driven doctor, who’s using music to help find a cure for this horrible illness.