Living in New Hampshire, I rarely pick up a Massachusetts newspaper. This past Sunday, however, I did: The Worcester Telegram. In Section A, page 10, there was an article by Associated Press columnist, Martha Irvine, about a doctor in Rushville, Illinois, who has been practicing medicine for almost sixty years. His name is Dr. Russell Dohner. And he is a legend in western Illinois.
The doctor, one of seven children, grew up on a farm not far from Rushville. He left the farm to join the army during World War II and even served as a police guard for President Truman. Due to the influence of the town doctor that treated him for seizures when he was a young boy, Russell Dohner chose to go to Western Illinois University on the G.I. Bill and, after that, to medical school at Northwestern University. After graduating, although he had his heart set on being a cardiologist for a hospital, he was asked by a doctor in Rushville if he could come and help him for awhile. He agreed. That doctor later left town. Dr. Dohner is still there.
One sixty-nine year-old woman, Carolyn Ambrosius, remembers her mother’s late pregnancy and how a city doctor told her that either she or the baby would survive, but not both. Her mother refused to believe that and came to see Dr. Dohner. “God’s going to take care of us — and Dr. Dohner,” Ambrosius remembers her mother saying. And God did. Dr. Dohner safely delivered her baby brother and her mother came through fine. Yes, he did house calls, as all general practitioners did in the old days, coming to the Ambrosius home each day to check on the mother during the pregnancy, and often staying to eat meals with the family after he’d completed his exams. When Carolyn reminds the doctor about that he expresses a vague recollection, and no wonder, he has delivered practically every baby in town since he arrived in 1955.
Doctor Dohner is a man of routine. He rises before 7 a.m. and walks into his office just before 10 a.m., that is after making the rounds at the local hospital. Martha Irvine writes: “There are no appointments. He takes his patients in the order they sign in — first come, first-served. His office has no fax machines or computers. Medical records are kept on hand-written index cards, stuffed into row upon row of filing cabinets.” Every Thursday at 12:00 he leaves his office, not to go home, but to check again on the patients at the local nursing home. Even on Sunday, after going to church, he checks in on the sick at the local hospital.
The doctor does not deal with insurance companies, “it’s not worth the bother,” he says. He has never even taken a real vacation, although he does take time off now and then to fish. Nor did he remarry after his wife left him to escape the rural life. How sad. Of course, the doctor would not be able to keep his office and meager staff were it not that he does get sufficient income from the family farm. In fact, one of the meeting rooms at the local hospital is named after his father. I do not know if Dr. Dohner is a Catholic. If not, I pray he becomes one soon. I will try to get this information.
Oh, I almost forgot. One thing did change in the good doctor’s practice. In order to keep his two nurses paid he had to increase the cost of a check-up from $2 to $5.
For the full article go here.
