doc
Spring 2015 • Kentucky
gathering donations for needy families while
growing up in Frankfort. His pediatrics
department chair at Vanderbilt was one of
the most compassionate people he has ever
known, always finding ways to make medical
care available for poor children.
Bill is a founding board member and life
board member of the local Ronald
McDonald House, which just celebrated
its 30th anniversary providing free lodging
for families of hospitalized children. He is
also on the board of Camp Horsin’ Around,
which offers recreational experiences for
children with chronic conditions on 190
acres in Boyle and Mercer counties. He says
volunteering for these charities ‘is my chance
to give back to the community.’ He also feels
lots of local support, saying ‘Lexington is a
town that cares for people.’
His conversations with children and parents
combine commonsense with a long-range
biopsychosocial view. Especially now that
most of BHS families are non-English
speaking, he gets great satisfaction seeing
immigrant families evolve and his young
patients grow up to become good citizens.
Having seen so many parents who still speak
no English after years of US residency, he
encourages these families to speak only
English at the dinner table so parents and
children can all benefit from their multicultural experience. He tells troubled teens
that graduating from high school and getting
further education can make a huge difference in there material welfare as well as their
family’s overall health and wellbeing. One
such former patient came to BHS one day,
gave him a big hug and said “I graduated
from law school today.”
Bill’s compassionate commitment is kept
alive by seeing a sick child recover, once
again being able to fuss and fight and push
the doctor away. He tells medical students
and residents not to go into pediatrics if
their feelings are easily hurt since most children between the ages of 9 months and 3
years don’t like the doctor.
His talks to families emphasize parental
encouragement and confidencebuilding.
Regarding sibling rivalry, he coaches parents
to tell the older child 5 times a day ‘You’re
the best big brother/sister I ever saw. We’re
going to read 2 stories tonight.’ Mothers
have reported that this helps tremendously.
He also reminds parents that they have a
relationship outside of childrearing and need
to spend some time regularly discussing how
their day has been.
cine and integrative holistic medicine. He is on
the family practice faculty at the University
of Kentucky College of Medicine and the
University of Louisville School of Medicine. He
operates the Mind Body Studio in Lexington,
specializing in stress-related chronic disease and
burnout prevention for helping professionals.
He can be reached through his website at www.
mindbodystudio.org
He agrees that most medical students enter
medicine with a service mentality and compassionate motivation and believes it is up
to physicians in academia and in community
practice to provide compassionate role models to help keep that flame of compassion
alive in the learners we encounter.
In retirement, he will continue to give talks
to UK pediatric residents, covering topics
often neglected in formal academic trainingsibling rivalry, toilet training and the relationship between
parents. In the process, he will continue doing what
he has done for
over 50 years- serving needy children
and their families.
Now and then, we don’t get
all the time we wanted
About the
Author
Dr Patterson is past
president of the
Kentucky Academy
of Family Physicians
and is board certified in family medi-
With Hospice you can make the most of the time left
(859) 296-6100
(800) 876-6005
www.hospicebg.org
I fell in love with these families.
They couldn’t afford medical care
and had sick children. It was a
wonderful experience for me to
be able to meet that need.”
— Bill Underwood, MD
13
The day we enter your lives, the
Hospice team treats you with the
respect, kindness, and dignity
typically reserved for one’s own
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