Memorializing Three Soldiers

Posted on | May 27, 2019 | 1 Comment

Mike Magee

8/18/2021

CODE BLUE (Grove/2020) began four decades ago in the noontime conference room of Colin (Tim) Thomas, M.D., chairman of surgery at the University of North Carolina, where I completed my surgical training in 1978. Tim’s pre-op conferences exposed us to his broad knowledge and understanding of medical history and its role in shaping compassionate and empathetic health professionals. Some two decades later, Eli Ginzberg PhD, the legendary Columbia health economist, generously guided me down the same pathway, and pointed me toward World War II as I struggled to understand how and why the physician had become so entangled in the Medical-Industrial Complex.

My father, William P. Magee, M.D., who was my professional and personal role model, died of Alzheimer’s disease in 1998 during my early tenure at Pfizer. He was a decorated captain in the Medical Corps of Patton’s 7^th Army in Europe, one of Dr. William Menninger’s “30 Day Wonders”, trained to manage psychiatric casualties in battle zones during the war. Seeking his war records at Eli’s urging triggered a decade long exploration, reinforced by a two year, Viagra induced association with one famous World War II casualty, Senator Bob Dole.

During my travels with Dole, it became clear that my father and Bob likely crossed paths many years ago. Dole passed by stretcher through Southern Italy evacuation hospitals that my father was helping to staff prior to his participating in the invasion of Southern France.

The 5-tier “chain of evacuation” which spanned the distance between battlefield and stateside specialty hospitals saved the life of Dole and countless others. My father worked that chain, and Eli Ginzberg helped design it. These three – the military doctor, the injured soldier, and the wartime administrator – were my silent guides through the early years of unraveling the story of how American health care came to be the global outlier it has become.

As we depart another war zone in the summer of 2021, I remember each of them, and their service to this country, with gratitude.

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Memorializing Three Soldiers – HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary – Health Article – Health & Wellness Blog
May 30th, 2019 @ 12:49 pm

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