DR. WHO?
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT CARMEL PERSON, MD
Aaron Burch
If you have elderly friends or family in Louisville, chances are good that your life has been touched by Dr. Carmel Person. As the medical director of Norton Geriatrics, the Norton Transitions program and six post-acute rehabilitation centers as well as co-director of Norton House Calls with Dr. Kitty Henry, Dr. Person is one of the guiding forces behind geriatric care in Jefferson County. It has become her life’ s work, and she continues to advocate for the wellbeing of seniors in all facets of her career.
“ I couldn’ t be positioned more perfectly for my passion, my training or my personal experience of being a caregiver to sick parents,” she said.“ It means a lot, being able to reflect and see what the last 35 years have produced.”
However, there may have been no one more surprised by her own abilities and success in the health care community than Dr. Person herself. Growing up in Okolona as the only daughter of a working class Catholic family, being a doctor hardly crossed Carmel’ s mind. She was more interested in … just about everything else.
“ My family was very Catholic. We went to St. Rita’ s Parish, same pew, same mass. My dad was an usher. He had been a kid at St. Joe’ s Orphanage and my mother grew up poor, so they tried to give us everything they didn’ t have,” she said.“ My dad built a half basketball court in the back for my two brothers, Danny and Kevin. I would be out playing in the dirt, very tomboy. I ran track, played a lot of softball. We had a cool family.”
Dr. Person started playing organ at age 8 and by 12 was performing at churches and for weddings. She also played on the first organized Jefferson County High School girls’ basketball team. Sports, playing music, Girl Scouts, jazz and tap dance, baton, rock and roll: there were a million things to think about that were not health care.
Dr. Carmel Person in Capri, 2015.
“ Health care wasn’ t on the radar when I was a kid,” Dr. Person said looking back, but it was still a necessary part of her life. Her mother, Mary Rita, suffered from chronic illness beginning when Carmel was just 11, and her health would wax and wane for nearly two decades.
“ I was the only girl, and we were very traditional in our roles. So, whatever needed to be done from a caregiver’ s standpoint fell to me,” Dr. Person said.“ She wasn’ t always sick but when she was hospitalized, I stayed with her.”
Just down from home on a very busy street was Wesley Manor, a retirement community where she made fast friends with the residents.
“ They put on make-up, played piano and loomed pot holders. I gravitated to those ladies and I thought they were the next best thing to sliced bread,” she said smiling.“ I remember going home and my mom saying,‘ Carmel Joy, where you been?’ And me saying,‘ Oh nowhere!’ And she knew I was hanging out at Wesley Manor.”
The seeds were planted for Dr. Person’ s later work in medicine, but the tree hadn’ t grown yet. As she got further into her teens, Carmel was more about rebellion and rock music. It was the 1970s after all.
“ My mother would say I was a bit of a free bird. That rebel part of me is in my DNA. For 10 years after high school, I did a bit of everything. I didn’ t know what I wanted, but I didn’ t want anything that resembled responsibility.”
( continued on page 30)
Editor’ s Note: Welcome to Louisville Medicine’ s member spotlight section, Dr. Who? In the interest of simply getting to know each other as a society of colleagues, we’ ll be highlighting random GLMS physicians on a regular basis. If you would like to recommend any GLMS physician member to the Editorial Board for this section, please e-mail aaron. burch @ glms. org or call him at 736-6338.
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