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February 3, 2008

A long career makes for some amazing tales

By DR. A.B. deGRANDPRE

The community of Corinth is the home of Dr. Richard W. Pitkin, an 80-year-old family physician who is not only still very active but makes many house calls.

For special patients, he will even call to see if his patient needs anything from the local super market.

It has been reported that on a cold, blustery winter morning following a snowfall, Dr. Pitkin might appear with his little medical bag in one hand and a snow shovel in the other. Some service! For his 80th birthday, a huge party was held in his honor. He commented that there must have been many ghosts at the party, hopefully, no thanks to him.

One local physician with whom I was acquainted would see patients at home but only after looking into the patient's refrigerator and helping himself to any goodies therein.

In my early years of medical practice, I never called to see if any of my patients needed groceries, but between 1939 and 1942, I made a host of house calls.

A while ago, our front doorbell rang. My daughter Marianne answered only to confront Doris Brothers, nee Doris Snide, who wanted to show me her left arm to illustrate the result of an operation that I had performed on her on the evening of Aug. 28, 1942.

She was 7 years old at the time, had fallen through and shattered a pane of glass, suffering massive damage to her left upper extremity. Unbelievably, my daughter Joanne was able to locate the original operative record, confirming that Doris had sustained massive soft-tissue damage, including severance of the brachial artery and complete severance of the median and ulnar nerves.

I was off to war within the next two weeks but instructed the parents that further surgery might well be necessary. Doris told me that she underwent extensive physiotherapy and that, sometime between 1975 and 1985, all sensation was restored. She felt that this was miraculous. On this most recent visit, she presented a warm left upper extremity with all fingers functioning and sensation seemingly intact.

It is another example of a phenomena that is unsolvable, comparable to the incandescent light that has been burning uninterruptedly in the little grotto in our backyard for somewhere between five and 10 years.

In another case, a well-known Montreal surgeon operated on one of my patients and assured me that he, the patient, could not possibly survive more than six months due to advanced cancer of the stomach. The good man died 13 years later from complications associated with a fractured hip.

An old patient stopped by recently and presented me with a copy of a statement for $40 submitted on Oct. 12, 1907, by my father, Dr. Arthur A. de Grandpre, for the professional care of a John McGann Sr. for 18 months between March 1906 and October 1907.

Another patient showed me a statement rendered by my father in the amount of 50 cents, presumably for an office call.

How some things change and, on the other hand, how other things remain the same!

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