2015 DOCTORS’ BALL PHYSICIAN HONOREES
24
Dr. Eugene Shively
COMPASSIONATE PHYSICIAN AWARD
I
n today’s test-happy, electronic medical culture, it’s not unusual to hear
complaints that doctor-patient relationships have gotten lost in the high
tech shuffle. That’s one reason surgeon Dr. Eugene Shively encourages
medical students and residents to venture into the developing world on
medical missions. “They learn that they don’t need a CT scan to make a
diagnosis of a hernia or a fibroid uterus,” he says with a knowing smile.
“It forces them to use their God-given talents without fancy x-rays to take
care of patients.”
Shively should know: He’s traveled the world on medical missions during
his more than three decades in practice, performing surgeries on patients
in need from the Caribbean to Africa. But it’s back in his home town of
Campbellsville, Kentucky, at Taylor Regional Hospital, and as a member of
the clinical faculties at the University of Louisville and University of Kentucky Schools of Medicine, that Shively gets to put into practice every day
the principles that have guided his career: “Try to get to know the patient
as a person. Try to learn about them and their family. Try to be personal
with them.” Even pray with them, he says, when an appeal for help from a
higher power might be appreciated.
Dr. Neal Garrison met Shively more than four decades ago on their first
day as second year surgical residents at U of L, and calls his colleague “a true
physician-surgeon…an old fashioned doctor,” who takes care of the whole
patient. U of L Hospital Chief of Surgery Dr. David Richardson joined the
faculty in 1976 when Shively was chief surgical resident, and says Shively’s
“personal magnetism” draws patients, colleagues and students alike. In a
place like Campbellsville, where Shively was only the second surgeon at the
hospital when he joined the staff more than 30 years ago, Richardson says
health care for an entire community is enriched. U of L medical students
and residents who rotate there with Shively love the experience so much
that some go on to careers in rural surgery themselves. And there’s a bonus:
Shively lets them stay in a cabin on the lake and takes them waterskiing,
another of his passions.
Taylor Regional Hospital CEO Jane Wheatley says Shively is the most
dedicated physician she’s ever met. “He never turns anyone down when
they are in need,” she says. Wheatley believes the growth of the hospital
into a high quality regional facility has been a direct result of Shively’s
“leadership, dedication to medicine, and compassion for people.” Shively’s
career as a surgeon ultimately comes down to the observation of Garrison,
his longtime friend: “If you were sick,” he says, “you would want Dr. Shively
as your doctor.”
THE DOCTOR’S BALL
The 20th Anniversary Doctor’s Ball will take place on Saturday, October 17, 2015, at The Louisville Marriott
Downtown. The event begins with cocktails and silent ]X