When our daughter Melissa was born almost 33 years ago, Tom and I chose Don to be her doctor. She was in bed with me, an hour old, when he came to see her. He moved his magic hands over her body and pronounced her “perfect.” It meant she was perfect!
At one of our early visits, Don invited me to join Bellevue Clinic as pediatrician. So, casually by today’s hiring procedures, did I join Don, Jim McGrath and Stu Minkin for the happiest years of my practice life.
On my first day in the office, Don gave me a hammer because I’d worried aloud to him about properly treating ingrown nails. And he gave me my first patient, a very upset, disabled teen who needed an exam, because Bellevue Clinic now had a female pediatrician. Thus began my decades-long association with the “Whistling Doctor”—I loved hearing him walk down the hallway toward my office.
Don was gentle, quiet-spoken, and with the help of Jody could see more patients on a winter influenza day than any of us, except possibly Stu Minkin. I could never match Don’s effortless speed, but I secretly wondered what I might have been able to do if I had had a Jody. Don and Jody worked together like the right and left hands on one body, so you can see this was not a wish that could be satisfied, and I didn't have to face the obvious fact that I never, ever could keep up with them.
Don and Jim McGrath were the first two pediatricians at the fledgling Bellevue Clinic. Though they had different personalities and practice styles, between them they set the tone for all our years of practice together—of equitable treatment of even the newest doctors. Of mutual respect, courtesy and compassion toward staff and patients. For doctors, staff, and I would like to think patients, there was a family feeling to being part of Bellevue Clinic.
Though I haven’t seen Don and Jody in years, Don’s death leaves an empty corner in my heart. Know that my thoughts are with you all—especially Jody.
With my love, Kathy Mikesell
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