| Length | 05:37 |
| Licensor | Wyoming Public Radio |
| Producer(s) | Peter O'Dowd |
| Formats | |
| Topics | Health, Senior |
| Produced | April 25, 2008 |
| Added to PRX | May 8, 2008 |
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A rural Wyoming doctor still uses lessons learned in Africa decades ago
Intimate, Personal, Thoughtful
English
Here?s something unheard of in medicine today: a doctor who spends time with you, and doesn?t charge a dime. Dr. William Close served as the personal physician to the Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. He was part of a team that contained the first outbreak of Ebola in Africa; he?s an author and the father to actress Glenn Close. And at 83, he still makes house calls in the sparsely populated countryside of Wyoming.
I went on such a visit with Dr. Close. We met a haggard but hilarious rancher who has called on doctor?and friend? for more than 20 years. Close considers Medicare a hassle, so he doesn?t bill for his services. He believes that the best thing a doctor can give his patients, especially at the end of life, is time. ?You can deal with big time fear, big time anxiety, big time pain, if you?ll spend the time with the patient,? he says. Close learned that lesson from President Mobutu, who often asked the doctor to simply sit bedside with relatives as they died. It?s a style of medicine he still uses today, and some health care professionals say this is a model for older physicians in retirement who can afford to ignore third-party payments and the modern insurance bureaucracy. This is a story about a man who has led a remarkable life?a man still working to improve the often-criticized healthcare industry.
