Bradley Mercer, MD

Brad Mercer, M.D., has been a pediatrician for 24 years, and all of those years have been spent at the Cook Children's Forest Park office.

He was born in Fort Worth at Texas Health Harris Methodist - and 32 years later his son was born in the same hospital and cared for by the same nurse!

Growing up, Dr. Mercer attended numerous schools in Fort Worth, finally graduating from Brewer High School. He earned his medical degree from a UT Medical School but is an Aggie at heart! Gig 'em.

What does he love about his job? "I love the kids. I love watching them grow. It makes me sad sometimes to watch them grow up leave my practice - it's almost like my own kids graduating and leaving to take on the world."

Dr. Mercer is fascinated with how the field of pediatrics has changed so much in nearly 30 years - new therapies, new technologies including, "the internet, cell phones, electronic charting, hospital services that allow us to stay in the office and not speed around town going to as many as 5 hospitals in the morning before the office opens!."

Other changes he sees include the increase in conditions that were not a huge problem 30 years ago that now need a lot of his attention: anxiety, depression, ADHD. He enjoys learning about emerging conditions so that he's always well prepared to take care of his patients. "You never stop learning."

He's been married to his wife Marisa for 28 years. "She's put up with my late-night charting, interruptions of family functions to take patient phone calls, and has been working around my call schedule now for three decades... and she is my best friend."

They have two children who he describes as, "two of the greatest kids on the planet, who are the best experience that a pediatrician could have. They taught me more about pediatrics than med school and residency. They are incredibly talented kids and I'm lucky to be their dad."

In his spare time, he enjoys running and fitness and playing the guitar poorly, but most of all enjoys all things fermentation - running his own brewery in his garage (beer, cider, and perhaps in the future more adult beverages)! He declares that "it looks like a mad scientist lives in his garage."

Dr. Mercer also loves travel, hiking, and would rather be in Colorado any time of the year, but mostly the summer.