MEMBERS
DR. Who
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT STEVE LIPSON, MD
Aaron Burch
A
common refrain among anesthesiologists is that when they do their job perfectly, the patient doesn’ t notice them at all. Dr. Steve Lipson has practiced anesthesiology for 35 years, and it’ s a testament to his talents that he remains inconspicuous and humble regarding his life’ s work.
“ I grew up wanting to be a doctor because of my parents,” Dr. Lipson recalled.“ My mom and dad always felt that was the pinnacle of success, and I was talented in science so it fit together very nicely.”
Born outside of Pittsburgh, Dr. Lipson and his family moved often during his childhood. After completing a Bachelor’ s Degree in chemistry at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Lipson was accepted to the UofL School of Medicine in 1974. Although he’ d flown through undergraduate courses and completed the degree in just three years, medical school provided his first true educational hardships.
“ I worked at JC Penney in the mall selling shoes every summer until we became junior medical students. I can remember my boss saying,‘ Steve, if that medical school stuff doesn’ t work out, you can come back here. You’ ll be manager someday, and nobody sues you if the shoes don’ t fit,” laughed Dr. Steve Lipson.“ I can tell you there were periods in my career where I wondered if I made the right choice.”
Dr. Lipson will be the first to tell you he struggled in medical school.“ To be quite honest, I wasn’ t used to having to work so hard,” he laughed.“ During that struggle, a few doctors took a liking to me and mentored me. Dr. Ferd Greifenstein and Dr. Pete Conway gave me guidance and helped me get back on track. I wasn’ t doing very much reading. One thing I learned very quickly was that to be anything in medicine, you have to read.”
Dr. Lipson was steered towards anesthesiology in two ways. The first was through the mentorship of Dr. Greifenstein, an anesthesiologist. The second was happenstance. Thanks to a shortage of anesthesiologists at Louisville General( now University of Louisville Hospital) during his junior year of medical school, an opportunity emerged.
“ UofL was so understaffed that they would pay medical students $ 60 a night for a 12-hour shift administering anesthesia,” Dr. Lipson explained.“ Historically, there’ s precedent for this, but this was strictly because they didn’ t have enough people. Those nights gave me valuable experience with emergency C-sections and trauma anesthesia.”
One curious night making rounds as a medical student stayed with Dr. Lipson for decades.“ Louisville General was originally built as a tuberculosis hospital. In the old days, ventilation was thought to help with treatment. So, the ward is very long with windows everywhere. One night I’ m making rounds, it must be at least 1 a. m., and a patient jumped out of a window of the fourth floor. Only the intern I was with and I knew it had happened.”
The patient luckily didn’ t fall four stories, instead landing on the roof of a lower story. While the intern ran to the emergency department for help, Dr. Lipson found a way onto the roof and started CPR.
“ Dr. Hiram Polk said he’ d expect the same from any surgical resident. Well, I caught a lot of flak for that, because nobody jumps out the window after a patient. I became well-known because of that experience, and the patient made a full recovery,” Dr. Lipson said.
As he graduated from medical student to UofL resident, the Department of Anesthesia was struggling. The chairman at the time, Dr. George Webb, asked for more money. When the school turned him down, Dr. Webb threatened to take most of the faculty into private practice.“ He said he’ d abandon the University and, for reasons beyond my pay grade, that’ s just what he did,” Dr. Lipson recalled.“ Because there was virtually no faculty in the department, I had to look elsewhere. Dr. Webb wrote me a lovely letter of recommendation. Suddenly, in the middle of my intern year, I moved to study at Duke and got married in short order.”
Dr. Lipson met Cynthia Russell as a respiratory therapist. She was going to nursing school at the time, and both were assigned to Louisville General.“ I found her crying one day, because an ICU patient bit her as she attempted to draw blood. I consoled her, and we started dating soon after that. When the anesthesia residency fell apart, we married and she came with me to North Carolina in 1980,” he smiled.
As their next pathway opened, the Lipsons were living through a
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