“I enjoy working with kids; I enjoy working with older people; and everybody in between. I just like working with people. And when they succeed, I feel like I’ve succeeded too.” – Mercy Care optometrist James Stewart, D.O.

A frog, a hug, a dollar store run; little gestures portray a big heart.

The hearty laugh of optometrist James (Jim) Stewart can be heard on any given weekday through the airy hallways of Mercy Care Chamblee. Whether he’s pausing to chat or gifting one of his signature rainbow frogs, his philosophy is clear; every patient is the most important.

Dr. Stewart’s work often goes beyond the exam room. For an older woman last year, he truly went the extra mile. The uninsured patient came to him with severely inflamed eyes, unable to see across the room, waiting painfully on an upcoming surgery. “She couldn’t see to read her bible, which is all she wanted to do,” Dr. Stewart said. “Even if she had the money, she didn’t have transportation to the store for reading glasses. So she was stuck, waiting and blind.” Over his break that day, Dr. Stewart jumped in his car and picked up a pair of dollar store reading glasses for the woman; restoring dignity and basic security while she awaited her operation.

Kids coming into the clinic look forward to Dr. Stewart’s famous froggy reward system. When a pediatric patient is brave, pays attention, or otherwise “does well” they receive a colorful frog toy as a thank-you. This tactic came in handy recently for two little girls.

Seven-year-old “Sophia” had a large, persistent cyst on her eye and Dr. Stewart urgently needed to inject steroids into the eyelid. With mom on her arm, and a rainbow frog in hand, “she sat there brave as can be, and let me inject her two or three times,” Dr. Stewart said. “I gave her a frog for each one.” The little girl proudly walked out with a small fortune of rainbow frogs.

Some months later, a nine-year-old girl came in with herpes simplex that unfortunately was directly on her cornea. The scarring took some of her vision, but there was still time to save her from blindness in the eye. “I was worried about her,” Dr. Stewart said. “It was heartbreaking because she had already waited five days for her daddy’s payday so they could purchase some simple medicine.” Dr. Stewart handed her a rainbow frog and got to work. He wrote a better prescription, sent it through Mercy Care’s pharmacy, and watched over her long-term recovery. He gladly reports the last time Mercy Care saw her, she sees clearly and with no pain. “She’s just a happy little girl again,” Dr. Stewart beamed.

As a founding member of Walmart’s Vision Centers, Dr. Stewart’s expertise in optometry has taken him around the world. But his career started in his home state of Alabama, where he agreed to serve a low-income, rural community for three years to forgive his optometry school debts. “I grew up poor,” Dr. Stewart said. “I understood the need there.” He so well understood, in fact, that he surpassed this requirement and served two decades instead of three years.

Following a fast-paced 25-year career in the corporate sector and serving the poor, Dr. Stewart moved to Brookhaven to begin retirement. But driving past Mercy Care Chamblee every day lit an old flame.

“I started researching Mercy Care,” Dr. Stewart said. “Looking at their work and the population, I thought, ‘this is probably where I needed to be for a long time.’”

Now you’ll find him toting rainbow frogs into the clinic by the hundreds to give away each day. It may be a small gesture, but in the right little hands can mean a victory. In some serious eye emergencies, one of Dr. Stewart’s frogs—paired with a smile—provides a special, colorful reward once a patient’s vision clears and heals.