看病只收5元 88歲小鎮醫生退休

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看病只收5元 88歲小鎮醫生退休

在伊利諾州洛西維爾（Rushville）行醫58年，堅持對每位患者只收五元看診費的社區
醫生多納（Russell Dohner），在年屆88歲時，放下聽診器，告老退休，診所1日正
式停業。

自1955年起，多納就為當地民眾診療。他從西北大學醫學院畢業後，曾想去大城市當
心臟科醫生，但後來驚覺洛西維爾更需要醫生，便留了下來。他在近60年的行醫生涯中
沒有休過一天假，他沒子嗣，但他接生的兒童超過3500人。

深受當地民眾愛戴的多納，一生都在兢兢業業地行醫，他不收保險，只向每位病患收五
元診療費，58年前剛當小鎮醫生時，每人收費才兩元。

多納看病也不接受預約，鎮上3100名居民如需要看病，就來診所排隊，候診室會有數十人
等候。若看急診，病人可從後門進來。

在看完最後一位病人前，多納醫生不會下班，因此他常常要到晚上9時才能打烊。

當地一家藥店的業主德維特說，他兒時曾在多納的診所看過病，成年後如果出現急症，
偶爾也會找他，因為要比找家庭醫生更快。

德維特說，多納的退休「是一個時代的結束」。他的藥店每晚都不會很早打烊，要一直
等到多納診所的通知，「顧客問我們何時關門，我們總是說，要等多納醫生來電話，我
們才能回家」。

當地一家醫院的發言人證實多納醫生退休，說「他不想接受採訪，也不接受任何形式的
招待會，他只希望退休」。

Read more: 世界新聞網-北美華文新聞、華商資訊
http://www.worldjournal.com/view/aUSnews/23967424/article-%E7%9C%8B%E7%97%85%E5%8F%AA%E6%94%B65%E5%85%83-88%E6%AD%B2%E5%B0%8F%E9%8E%AE%E9%86%AB%E7%94%9F%E9%80%80%E4%BC%91?instance=usbull

Meet the small-town doc who’s charged $5 a visit for 55 years. He’s
delivered 3,500 babies in Rushville, Ill. — and never taken a day off
By Bob Dotson

Dr. Russell Dohner has been looking after his neighbors for 55 years,
charging them about what we pay for a fancy cup of coffee: five bucks a
visit.

Doc Dohner doesn’t believe in tossing things away, and that keeps costs
down. The only thing modern in his office is medicine. Most of his nurses
have been with him nearly as long as his furniture. They’re paid well because
Doc works around the clock. He will go anywhere, at any time, to help those
in need, often arriving before emergency crews. He once saved a small boy
from smothering to death in a corncrib, once climbed down into a coal mine
to help rescue four men.

Dohner broke his own back a few years ago and has had a heart attack —
the only times he’s ever closed his clinic. He took time off until patients
started coming to his house seeking medical care.

He does have help. Doc brought half the Rushville hospital staff into the
world, including the woman who runs the place, Lynn Stambaugh. She
used to wash dishes at the hospital. Dohner inspired her to go to nursing
school.

I asked her why Doc never burned out. "Well, I think because every day he
makes a difference to at least one person, and if you can do that, you can
go on.”

The morning we first met, back in 1983, Dohner had been to surgery twice,
prepped a broken arm, handled two emergency cases, checked on 50 patients
and delivered three babies. It was not yet 10:30.

No days off
He has only one hobby: trees. He’s donated 10,000 of them to this prairie
town. Now and then he does slip away to go fishing on a Thursday afternoon,
but he’s usually in his tie, and always near a phone. He has not, in 55
years, had a vacation, not even a full day off. What would he do, if he did
take a day off? “I would like to go to Missouri,” Doc says. Missouri is only
58 miles west of Rushville. “Yes, but I have to take care of my patients first.”

The last time Doc left Illinois was during World War II. He was a military
policeman in the Army, guarding President Harry Truman. “I was close
enough to touch him,” Doc smiles, “but he wouldn’t have liked that.”

Russell Dohner has won dozens of awards for the quality of his practice
and was runner-up for Country Doctor of the Year. Every morning before
the sun peeks over the water tower, dozens of people are crammed into
his waiting room.

He takes no appointments. Those who are seriously ill use the back door to
get immediate attention; others sit for an hour or more to visit a doctor
who knows more about them than some of their families do.

The first baby he delivered now drives her granddaughter 30 miles for an
office visit. “When your little girl gets carried to surgery by the doctor
instead of one of the nurses, she will learn to trust him, too,” she said.

Doc has no children of his own — unless you count the 3,500 babies he’s
delivered. That’s more than the population of Rushville.

http://www.today.com/id/40661756/#.UnVdEHA3vTo