MY MEDICAL BACKGROUND

I GRADUATED FROM AMITE High School in 1966, received a bachelor of science degree in zoology from Southeastern Louisiana College in Hammond, Louisiana, and then received my M.D. degree in three short years from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. I subsequently completed a one-year "rotating O" internship at Earl K. Long Memorial Hospital in Baton Rouge, where I moonlighted very frequently in the extremely busy emergency room there and then worked for many years in emergency rooms all over the State of Louisiana as a contract physician on weekends. Of course, during my education at L.S.U. Medical School, I was fortunate in being able to receive my training at the busiest and largest public health hospital in the state — Big Charity. Between these two state-owned facilities, I received an unbelievable experience and acquired a tremendous amount of education and training. In January of 1974, I entered private practice as a solo physician in Amite, Louisiana, but my stay there only lasted one year, as I chose to relocate to Hammond, fifteen miles away, due to a multitude of factors, including general dissatisfaction and extensive overworking. While in Amite, I worked almost every weekend at the Hood Memorial Hospital emergency room, along with providing prenatal care to several dozen pregnant ladies. In fact, I delivered my first private practice baby at this hospital and then subsequently delivered twelve more healthy newborns in their newly-opened maternity unit.

When I first entered private practice, I provided medical care to ten to fifteen nursing home patients, but upon being appointed coroner later on, I decided to terminate this service due to my demanding schedule. I always had a somewhat busy hospital practice, as I generally kept between eight to ten inpatients. Over the years, for varying periods, I served on the staff of Hood Memorial Hospital in Amite, Seventh Ward General Hospital in Hammond (later becoming North Oaks Medical Center), and St. Helena Hospital in Greensburg, Louisiana, a small rural hospital located 16-17 miles northwest of Amite. My practice consisted of seeing patients of all ages and encompassed pediatrics, whereby I would perform well-baby checkups and provide routine immunizations, and geriatrics. I even practiced obstetrics for a three-to four-year period during my thirty years of medicine, as I delivered well over 350 babies at our local hospital in Hammond. I was extremely fortunate in having a knack for being able to keep an abundance of patients, which I attributed to my great personality, ability to relate well to other people, and my overt passion and understanding towards less-fortunate individuals.

After my move to Hammond, I contracted with several state agencies — the local mental health clinic, substance-abuse clinic, and public health clinic, working in both the family planning and S.T.D. sections. My two jobs at the public health clinic arose from an unexpected resignation of the doctor and the inability of the state to find someone willing to immediately step in. I was asked to join the staff of the mental health clinic because of my past experience of having worked with several psychiatrists in our area through my deputy coroner and coroner positions. My work at this psychiatric center included performing physical examinations on substance-dependent individuals, counseling, and rendering other services to mental patients, such as providing instructions regarding medication adjustments and dosages. I was also contracted with the Child Protection Agency in both our parish and our neighboring parish, Livingston, where my duties included performing physical examinations on potentially battered or neglected children and providing professional consultation, particularly at their informal monthly meetings. I continued my association with these state agencies for a very long time until my forced retirement due to an acute cerebrovascular accident (stroke) that resulted in a significant memory loss.

Fourteen years during my family practice was spent serving as coroner of our midsized rural parish of Tanigipahoa, which was located midway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I probably enjoyed this position more than anything else, since along with it came enormous prestige. At that time, the coroner's office only consisted of one person, that being the coroner himself, unless he was fortunate enough to have other physicians interested in assisting, for which I never was. Briefly, there are several important functions of the coroner's office. The first one, and most important, involves his responsibility in handling deaths due to anything other than natural causes, including suicides, homicides, all types of accidents, deaths from infectious processes, deaths resulting from drug abuse or toxins, stillborns, abortions, and premature infant deaths. And, because our parish at that time didn't have any type of official coroner's office or morgue, the over 1,500 autopsies that I personally performed took place at funeral homes, since the funeral directors graciously donated their establishments.

The second function pertains to the coroner's participation in dealing with mental patients and substance-abuse individuals, as he can order an immediate or emergency evaluation of any individual suspected of having an emotional, psychiatric, or drug problem. And after the individual is taken into custody by the police department, the coroner has the option of either evaluating the person himself or referring him or her to another facility where there would be a social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist. I chose to evaluate most of these individuals myself, since I felt that I would have first-hand knowledge and thus be in a better...