I think what I would like to see in rural Appalachia is, "Big city medicine with hometown care".

I went  there in their residency (internship) program  and they would say, “Where are you from, Southern boy?” but the attending physicians could always count on me, night or day, 

  July 5, 2001  8:45 pm  Summersville, West Virginia

 I was born in Clifton Forge, Virginia, which is a pretty rural area.  My family and I  lived there for a couple of years  then we moved back home to rural Appalachia. We lived at Drennen.  I went to grade school at Otter Creek,  100 students in grades  1-6, not even 100.

 My family; both of my grandparents worked in the coal mines, Cannelton Coal, near Montgomery, inside the mines.  My dad was a teacher but could not make enough money  for us to live on, so he went back in the coal mines working for Bethlehem Steel.  There were no doctors in my family.  I have one brother. One thing with coal mining, it is such a difficult job, one day while I was in junior high my dad took me to work with him and told me, “Son,  I want you get an education so you don’t have to work in a place like this because of the dangers in the coal industry."  He wanted  me to get an education and do something he felt no one else in the family had done. He wanted me to get a college degree and  a job outside of the coal industry because of the tough, rigorous and dangerous work in coal mining.

 When asked about the educational system in the rural Appalachia area, the answer:
Even though it is small,  basically, I think you get a better education with  more one on one and you have educators who are interested in you as a person; therefore, you develop a desire to further your education. It is available in a small, rural Appalachian area.  The teachers are more willing to help you.  I took as many science courses as I could  get in junior and senior high  so I would be prepared to go into the health career fields.

I went to West Virginia Tech at Montgomery, WV. for undergraduate study   I tried to stay small throughout the whole course of undergraduate study. In high school I graduated in  the top 10, graduated from Tech, cum laude, went to Medical School at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine where I graduated  with honors.

I went to St. Luke Hospital, Bethlehem  Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia. I was selected to go there to complete my internship.  You have to apply to residency and you have to match their criteria.  St. Luke, as far as the match is concerned, is very difficult to get into, they take 8 internal medical residents per year and they are mainly out of  Philadelphia  schools. There are 5 medical schools in Philadelphia.   Of course, I was the only West Virginia resident (from rural Appalachia)  in the whole hospital.   I was somewhat of an enigma.  A lot of people didn’t even know about the State of West Virginia, like they were saying, " I have family in Richmond and how far are you from the beach?"  It was funny.

I  believe one thing I took up there from the people of Appalachia was  the fact if you were from a people of a blue collar family that helps you communicate with the  patient; people pulled from the coal mines or accidents because I had lived through that; whereas,  everyone else there it seemed, their dad was a doctor or their  brother was a doctor.

I went  there in their residency (internship) program  and they would say, “Where are you from, Southern boy?” but the attending physicians could always count on me, night or day,  I would always be there, dependable, because I had developed my work ethics from living in the country. I think I gained the respect of a lot of physicians at that hospital.  They didn't want me to leave, in fact today, July 5, 2001, I got a call,  they want me to come back.

I went through all of that and at the end I received "Resident Student of the Year Award" which goes to the top senior resident that is voted on by the hospital staff  of hundreds of doctors, and the  "Doctors' Doctor Award" which is awarded to the physician who is "Kind, Clever and Wise."  I walked away with the two top honors. Usually the two top awards are not given to the same person but I won them both; a level one trauma center, 500 bed hospital.

Ultimately, I always felt one reason I went to a big city was, if I can make it in a big city I can make in the country. Of course, I wanted to come back home and I know I can’t do the same things here that I could do there, but I feel there is a definite need in this area for good health care and a need for local doctors to come back.  I was thinking the other day, the doctors here are not from this area. We need to get people from this area back to this area.  We have something to offer, when the patient says, "I did  x, y, z out on the farm today,"  you know what they are talking about.  You have been there. You worked it.

 How did the  New York  Times get your story, the answer:
When I was in rotation I did a rural health rotation which was trying to promote medical students when they finished their training to return to the state and so I was one of the ones they tracked back.  They had gone through the rotation and they tracked me down and said, "Yes,  they are getting these people back in the state".

I think the health care in rural Appalachia is getting better but we still have work to do to make rural medicine better.  I think what I would like to see in rural Appalachia is, "Big city medicine with hometown care".  Where you can do both; providing high standards of care with the approach of  more like folks living in the community; family style.

The hospital where I trained in Philadelphia, the US News & World Report Magazine  ranked in the top 100 for the  3 years I was there; it was always ranked there in cardiology .  Where I trained they still want me back all the time.  I know that I was a hard worker  and I offered something they didn’t see very much, being from Appalachia. Here everyone is family and that is how I practice medicine; listening and caring.

I think the gist of my story is; that I came  from a rural area and went to a big city and did well and then came back and not only did I excel  there but a rural Appalachian from West Virginia walked away with all the top honors which proves that even though  you are from rural Appalachia you can excel.

 end of interview