Tributes
The Last Dr. Geggie Retires
The Low Down to Hull and Back News, October 17, 1985
It was indeed a surprise the other week when Dr. Stuart Geggie turned up in The News' office to place an announcement which began with the cryptic words: "Dr. Stuart Geggie wishes to announce his cessation of all medical practice effective immediately ... "
Over 30 years of dedicated service to Wakefield and the Gatineau Valley could not pass without taking the opportunity to speak of some of the reminiscences of the good doctor, and to place them in print for our readers.
Dr. Stuart's interest in history came immediately to the fore. When I suggested it was the end of an era, he said.
"Yes indeed, an era beginning with my grandfather, Dr. Stevenson who graduated from McGill in 1880 and came to practise in Wakefield in 1885.
"My father, Dr. Harold Geggie, graduated in 1911 and then answered an advertisement to join Dr. Stevenson's practice. He did come to Wakefield, and shortly thereafter married my mother, Dr. Stevenson's daughter."
Grandfather Hans Stevenson died about six months after Dr. Harold arrived in Wakefield to start his own medical dynasty. It lasted 56 years, and he had three sons Hans, David and Stuart, who all became medical practitioners and worked in the village.
Hans graduated in 1938, saw war service, then joined his father. David and Stuart became physicians in 1950 and 1951 respectively, after their stints in the service. Upon graduation, Stuart interned in Edmonton and went to the U.K. to obtain his specialization in surgery, returning to Wakefield and the then recently-opened Gatineau Memorial Hospital.
Stuart said of these early years: "I found acceptance difficult. The patients wanted either my father or Hans. It took about five years to gain acceptance. I opened an office in Kazabazua and practised there from 1956 to 1966. The biggest ego trip a doctor can have is to be wanted by a patient, over another physician."
Reflecting on his teenage years, Stuart said that there was little help around for his father - very few nurses in the country to assist at births - so his father decided to give his sons some medical training. "Dad said he could teach me to do a few things; whether I understood or not was another matter. In fact, I delivered my first baby at the age of 16, with Father's assistance. This was back in 1940 when families had 18 or 20 children - and they were all home deliveries. I never intended to be anything other than a doctor," he added.
Speaking of birthing, Stuart recalls an early experience. "In this farm house, I was on the head of the bed giving the mother-to-be cholorform and the old grandmother was holding her legs. Father was on the bed too, assisting the delivery of the head, when the bed broke, both side-rail and spring. We all landed on the floor, the mother with us, too. The baby was born on the floor!" And on the subject of babies, Dr. Stuart said that he recently reached some sort of a milestone, in that a girl that he had birthed just gave birth to a child of her own. So he figures he is some kind of grandfather!
Back in the late 1930s and 1940s winter travel in the country was not good. The roads were rolled to make it easier for the horses to pull sleighs, and the Geggies experimented with various snowmobiles. The first was a kit used to convert Dr. Harold's yellow Chevrolet roadster to a tracked-vehicle. Another was a very early Bombardier snowmobile, with a four-cylinder Ford engine on the back; it was propeller-driven. "It worked well as long as the snow was hard. In the spring, trips began before sunrise to take advantage of the frozen snow as it didn't work too well on slush." Stuart remembers that when they went out on calls they took a mechanic with them to keep the machinery running. Stuart recalls it was one of the Meunier brothers from Farm Point who did this job, until around the mid-1940s.
Dr. Stuart said that when the hospital first opened in 1951, "All proceeds went into a central pot. Secretarial expenses were paid and if there was anything left over the doctors got paid." Of course, this was before medicare, when the doctor's bill was paid by the individual. Frequently people did not seek medical attention because they could not afford it. He recalls his father was frequently paid in kind - a lot of potatoes and sides of beef.
Stuart also remembers that his father bought three cottage lots at Wolf Lake and had cottages built at different times. When asked about the medical bills, he replied: "Very often there were patients whom you did not bill - even for surgery that was done by city doctors. We had a great relationship with specialists in Ottawa. Some of the very top surgeons would come up, and never expect to be paid!" Dr. Stuart is quick to point out that while he is not a socialist, he does see the value of medicare and the many changes it has brought about in the medical field, since its inception in 1970.
Another change that Dr. Stuart noted was the advent of more powerful drugs. Drugs that are directed specifically to a problem, such as heart drugs, and antibiotics. He mentioned that in his father's day they aimed at keeping a patient's general condition strong, but there were few specific remedies, with the possible exception of diphtheria antitoxins.
"My father talked about driving through Masham in 1912 and in every house someone had died. Whole families were wiped out. Today we almost have the bacterial diseases conquered. Life expectancy has certainly increased during my years of practice. In my time you were not supposed to lose a child, but you did - usually from pneumonia - but to have a child die today is not acceptable."
Another advance that made a great deal of difference during Dr. Stuart's time is "The Pill." He commented, "The birth control pill has made a great difference. The families are smaller and there is far less incidence of Down Syndrome. In the days before the pill every year there would be two or three tragically deformed births."
Some 24 years ago, when Edelweiss ski hill first opened, the Geggies were medical officers on skis at the resort. Stuart remembers that on a good weekend there would be 40 or 50 minor injuries, including a couple of broken legs, due mostly to the lack of proper release bindings. The pay for the weekend's duty was free skiing.
The hunting season is also pretty dramatic in the country. There are usually some nasty gunshot wounds to treat.
Speaking of dramatic happenings, I asked Dr. Stuart for an example of one of his more spectacular moments as a doctor. Without hesitation he remembered this case: "One woman who had several children developed toxemia of pregnancy - high blood pressure, kidney failure and so on. She did not come to the office for prenatal visits, but came only when she was having convulsions. She died, but I was able to perform a post-mortem Caesarian and saved a healthy baby."
Asked how it was to have a father and brothers as doctors working in the same hospital, he commented, "It was frustrating. I was the youngest, in fact 10 years Hans' junior. You couldn't question their opinions and it was just hard being a young guy."
Dr. Stuart has the highest praise for the younger doctors that have taken over in recent years. He said, with some candor, "They are really more highly trained than I am. They have advanced degrees in family practice. They are a really go-ahead group, and they have dragged the rest of us out of our doldrums - it's great!"
Looking back over some 34 years of practising in the Gatineau Valley, Dr. Stuart is philosophical about being forced to retire with a ticker that is pretty tired. "My cardiologist said that I had to reduce the tensions in my life."
"Im happy about my retirement. There are my hobbies to keep me busy. Growing things, pine trees from seed, cactus, and, of course, reading history; maybe even taking a couple of courses at Carleton or Ottawa universities. There is a new book about a lumber baron to write. Matter of fact, we are awaiting delivery of a word processor; and, of course, there are my father's papers to put into some order. He wrote marvellous stories, usually while awaiting babies to be born. He wrote on all kinds of scraps of paper, so it will be quite a job to edit this material into a book," the doctor said.
Over the years Dr. Stuart has become quite a fixture in the community and it is delightful to see that he has the sense to follow doctor's orders. After all, he gave out enough over his lifetime!