FSU College of Medicine 2018 annual report 2018 Annual Report - FSU College of Medicine | Page 16

14
THE PHYSICIANS WE PRODUCE
Landry put technology to work by practicing
telemedicine for storm survivors in Panama City,
more than
miles away from his office.
These communities have newfound appreciation for
their physicians. And vice versa. Several alumni said this
experience reaffirmed their decision to practice small-town
medicine.
Mary Watson
their training, their experience, their commitment and their
communities spirit. That was enough. For example
Watson worked five days straight as the only M.D.
in the ER of Calhoun-Liberty Hospital
which lost
part of its roof but never closed its doors.
Bixler made house calls to provide bare-bones face-
to-face doctoring, and she and James both practiced
medicine in a tent at Mexico Beach.
Albritton oversaw the evacuation of
patients from
Jackson Hospital, carried to safety by a caravan of
ambulances that drove all night from Tennessee.
Buck, in addition to caring for his young patients,
skillfully wielded a chainsaw after the storm roared
miles inland.
We have very many people in our community who lost
their home, they lost their place of work, they lost their place
of worship, they lost their gas station and their grocery store
and the places where they shop and where they celebrate,
they lost literally everything, Bixler said. And to see those
community members come together and literally give the
shirt off their own back to someone else, that s where a
community s heart is. And it s still here. Even though it s
broken and battered, it s still here.