It’s a Thursday evening in mid-December, and Jamie Kagihara, MD, is fast-walking home from a neighborhood park where she just finished making a festive balloon garland for Hollyglen’s annual Santa parade.
Dr. Kagihara—or Dr. Balloons, as she’s known in this cozy neighborhood of Hawthorne—is an exceptionally energetic physician. A board-certified critical care pulmonologist, she lives at a breathless pace. Between her medical practice, parenting and many volunteer roles in her community, Dr. Kagihara’s lungs get plenty of exercise even without blowing up balloons. (Full disclosure: She mostly uses an electric pump.)
Dr. Kagihara started making balloon decorations three years ago. She got the idea after pricing professionally made garlands for her son’s birthday party. Sticker shock prompted her to make her own, learning from YouTube videos.
She’d always been creative—before balloons, it had been photography and scrapbooking. Friends started asking her to create garlands for their parties. Before long, she started charging for her services—keeping her price well below the commercial rates that had so incensed her. She partnered with Torrance Memorial ICU nurse Emily Lee, and the hospital became one of their clients.
Business is brisk. Dr. Kagihara pumps air several nights a week, creating everything from dainty balloon bouquets to sweeping garlands.
Island Girl
A proud Sansei (third-generation Japanese American) from Honolulu, Dr. Kagihara grew up ocean-swimming and surfing. Her interest in lungs started with a healthy appreciation for the importance of holding one’s breath when tumbled by epic waves off Waikiki Beach.
A self-described “huge tomboy,” she played varsity volleyball and softball at the prestigious Punahou School in Honolulu. She attended USC for college, went back to Hawaii for her medical education and residency, and returned to USC for fellowships in pulmonology and critical care.
Medicine runs in the family. Her father, Lance Kagihara, MD, is a much-beloved internist, and younger sisters Jodi Kagihara, MD, and Jaclyn Kagihara, MD, specialize in hematology-oncology and interventional gastroenterology, respectively. They all practice in Honolulu.
Jamie settled on pulmonary critical care because “in chaotic situations, I can be calm and make quick decisions. I think it stems from growing up in the Aloha state—having a cool, grounded mind,” she says.
When she joined Torrance Memorial in 2018, she was the hospital’s first dedicated intensivist. During the pandemic, she was one of seven pulmonologists pulling 12-hour shifts to care for the hospital’s sickest patients.
Vital Stats
Dr. Jamie Kagihara, 40
Hometown: Aiea neighborhood of Honolulu
South Bay community: Hollyglen neighborhood of Hawthorne
Education: BA in biology from USC, 2008; MD, 2012, and internal medicine residency, 2015, from the University of Hawaii; pulmonary and critical care fellowships from USC Keck, 2018
Side gig: Balloon garland creator at Chulypopping
Heavenly Hollyglen
While she misses O‘ahu, Dr. Kagihara has laid roots in the South Bay. Weekends revolve around her two young sons’ activities: baseball, soccer, basketball.
“My kids are my everything,” she says. “They do Kumon, jujitsu and they’re learning to speak Mandarin.”
Her husband, Bryan Chu, keeps the family on track, managing their finances, shuttling the kids to after-school activities and volunteering at their school. A brand marketer with recruiting giant Robert Half, he works remotely from home.
“Bryan is amazing,” Dr. Kagihara says, heaping praise on her spouse. “He wakes up before me, and he’ll make hot breakfast for everybody. Then we walk to school or meet up with neighbors and ride together on bikes.”
Dr. Kagihara wears many hats in the family-friendly neighborhood nestled between Rosecrans Avenue and El Segundo Boulevard just north of Costco. She serves on the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee of the Wiseburn Unified School District and is a member of her sons’ elementary school site council and an active PTA member.
“Can I emphasize how great this community is? The people in Hollyglen have become our chosen family,” she says. “I want to be involved and contribute to the community in any way possible.”
She brings the same enthusiasm and energy to Torrance Memorial, where she chairs the critical care committee. The first pulmonologist to practice at the El Segundo office, she works long hours seeing patients in the wards and outpatient clinics.
But when the day is finally done, Dr. Kagihara trades the committees and clinical rounds for something airier, answering to the title of Dr. Balloons.
