"A successful surgeon should be a man who, when asked to name the three best surgeons in the world, would have difficulty deciding on the other two." ----Denton Cooley, renowned American cardiothoracic surgeon.
Most surgeons would pass with flying colors, struggling to identify the remaining two. And that's the way we would want it, when going under the knife. Back to the beginning, which for me is the Bogalusa Community Medical Center "BCMC," known today as Our Lady of the Angels Hospital, the first surgeon I remember was Dr. Edgar L. Feinberg (1917-1983). He was one fine doctor, a cut above. Born in 1917 in the state of Florida, he landed - with his wife Rita Tortmase Feinberg, a nurse - in Bogalusa where the two of them made significant contributions to the medical community. The Feinbergs had four children - Regina Feinberg (Hall), Daniel T. Feinberg, Dr. Edgar L. Feinberg II, and Max D. Feinberg.
On my father's medical staff at BCMC, Dr. Feinberg was a superb physician. And his son, Dr. Edgar Feinberg II, followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon. Such is often the case with physicians - generation after generation. Medicine is what they grow up with. It is their province. So it is in our family, with our surgeon son-in-law the son of an orthopedic surgeon and cardiologist. Erik is also the grandson and great-grandson of physicians, making him a fourth- generation physician. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Nearly a year ago, Erik Anders Green graduated as a Surgical Chief Resident in the Tulane University School of Medicine Department of Surgery. My husband Rodney and I joined in the celebration with our daughter Dr. Marjorie "Betsy" Bateman-Green - Erik's wife - and Erik's parents Drs. Daniel and Ulrika Birgersdotter-Green at the Westin. There, the chief surgery resident graduates were in the limelight, honored by the Tulane Department of Surgery Faculty. Erik received the award for the best medical knowledge and also the Best Chief Resident Award which, voted on, was a real crown.
And before a packed house - a prodigious gathering of the city's finest surgeons - the Tulane Surgery program which is steeped in tradition was recognized for its notable history. Among Tulane's graduates are renowned surgeons Dr. Rudolph Matas, Dr. Alton Ochsner, and Dr. Michael Debakey.
Our beloved son-in-law Erik who was born in Nashville, Tennessee, grew up in La Jolla, California, with his two siblings - sister Anna and brother Nils - and in Stockholm, Sweden (their mother's homeland) where the Green family has a second home. Erik matriculated at Cornell University, where he majored in Biology with a concentration in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. And thereafter, color us lucky, he moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane School of Medicine, where he met our daughter. By the spring of 2014, their first year of medical school, Erik and Betsy were pretty much inseparable. We knew in March, when she brought him to our farm in Washington Parish, that it was serious. And their engagement followed in 2016. The couple graduated a year later from Tulane School of Medicine where both were members of AOA Honor Society.
Notably, Erik also earned a Master's in Public Health from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, concurrently with his M.D., before completing his five-year residency in General Surgery, sedulously serving as Chief Administrative Resident his last year. Erik is presently in the midst of a two-year fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Montefiore Medical Center/Einstein in New York City where he moved almost a year ago.
Rodney and I have long known that we have a great son-in-law. So we took great pleasure, that spectacular summer evening, reveling in Erik's accomplishments. And from the podium, he brought me to tears when he mentioned his in-laws. Naturally Erik recognized his spouse and his parents but his in-laws? That set him apart.
Yet long before, Erik had distinguished himself as a surgical resident. This was crystal clear from the eloquent, and clever, introduction given him at graduation by a brilliant surgeon - Dr. Clifton L. McGinness. Digressing, he gifted Erik a Bruce Springsteen CD for graduation. This fond memory came flooding back in February in the "Big D" where Rodney and I saw the Boss in concert.
And now for the denouement. Dr. McGinness, who is the William Henderson Chair in Surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine, grew up in Washington Parish and is a 1973 graduate of Bogalusa High School. He graduated from Tulane University in 1977 and Tulane University School of Medicine in 1981, completing his internship and residency at Tulane from 1981 to 1986. Seated on his right at dinner, I swiftly made the connection. No icebreaker necessary.
Together, Dr. McGinness and I remembered Dr. Feinberg, an indelible memory for the both of us. Somehow I always wind my way back home, to Washington Parish.
On National Doctors Day, tomorrow, we are grateful for all our physicians.
