LSU Medical School Fulfilling Potential

              SHREVEPORT JOURNAL _ SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY, LA., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26. 1983 5A
Cover Story
LSU medical school fulfilling potential
Today the Journal begins a series of articles examining the impact which the
institutions of higher education in the Shreveport-Bossier area have had on the
community. Each month a different institution will be featured in Saturday Neighbors.
What was once a charity hospital has now become Louisiana State Univeristy Medical
Center, a university teaching hospital and integrated medical center which has made
it possible to recruit some of the finest medical experts available to teach medical
students and treat area residents. The community now has access to a much wider
range of medical expertise and to programs such as the United Network for Organ
Sharing, the Louisiana Regional Poison Center and the Rural Infant Care Program.
Text by Nancy Morris
Photos by Ralph Fountain
Third year medical student Deborah Gatlin (right) takes blood pressure of
expectant mother Karen Allen of Shreveport.
William Ross (left), pharmacist and information specialist in LSUMC's Poison
Control Center, confers with Dr. Helmut Redetzki, director of the center and
head of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
Andrew Baker is a 14-month-old
baby who sits on the floor of his
parents' apartment, happily play-ing
and putting everything within reach
into his mouth.
He's on a strict low-protein diet — his
formula can only be bought by prescrip-tion
— and even then, his mother must
carefully prepare it, making sure that it is
mixed properly to the smallest fractions
of ounces.
But his mother doesn't mind. "He's
alive," she says. "And that's all that mat-ters."
Sandy Mikesell has a kidney disease.
She originally went to Dallas for
treatment, although she had a
dialysis machine at home where her hus-band
and oldest son assisted with the
dialysis three times a week.
But then her kidneys were removed,
and she underwent a transplant oper-ation.
Her system rejected the new
kidney, however, and it had to be re-moved.
Sandy then could no longer have
dialysis at home. Instead, she had to go to
a hospital for dialysis — and she also had
to have monthly blood transfusions since,
without kidneys, her system could no
longer make blood. She's a candidate for
another transplant, but that may not be
easy since with each monthly transfusion,
more antibodies are introduced into her
system.
Although their diseases are un-related,
both Andrew Baker and
Sandy Mikesell are patients at LSU
Medical Center — the area's only medical
school and teaching hospital and Louisi-ana's
only medical school that has its own
hospital.
Andrew is now being treated at Baylor
College of Medicine in Houston for a rare
enzyme deficiency, but he receives reg-ular
check-ups at LSU Medical Centers
His parents, Sheila and Allen Baker, be-lieve
that Andrew is alive today because
of the quick thinking of a specialist, pedia-trician
Robert McVie, on the staff at the
Medical Center.
Sandy Mikesell believes much the same
thing. She credits LSU Medical Center's
Renal Dialysis Unit with the fact that her
life continues. She also gives credit to two
of the staff members there — Dr. Stephen
Brown and Louise Jacobbi, clinical re-search
associate for the transplant pro-gram.
Fifteen years ago, the treatment re-ceived
by Andrew Baker and Sandy
Mikesell was not available in Shreveport.
The quality of medical care in Shreveport
was generally considered to be good —
excellent, in fact. But there were few fa-cilities
for research and specialized care
— care that would be needed by perhaps
one patient in a thousand. Or one in 10,000.
Several private physicians were aware
of this gap, and they knew that the only
way to attract top-notch specialists was
to have a medical school. A local medical
school.
The physicians met, and together they
convinced J. Bennett Johnston, then a
state senator, of the need for a medical
school in Northwest Louisiana.
Johnston's legislation creating a medi-cal
school in Shreveport under the aus-pices
of Louisiana State University Medi-cal
School was approved by the Louisiana
Legislature in 1965, with funding ap-proved
the following year.
The next big move took place in
1975-1977 — a merger that was the first
and only of its kind in the state.
"The school took over the adminis-tration
of Confederate Memorial Hospi-tal,"
says Elaine King, coordinator of in-formation
services at LSU Medical
Center. "And'now, this is the only univer-sity
teaching hospital in the state. All the
other medical schools have affiliation
agreements with hospitals in their area."
Shortly after the merger of school and
hosptial took place, the state legislature
passed laws making it possible for the
hospital to serve patients able to pay as
well as those who couldn't.
Mrs. King says the fact that the charity
hospital had also become a university
teaching hospital made it possible to "re-
Facts about LSU Medical School
ts Cost of the original facility was $30.8 million. In 1971 when
contracts were signed, it was the most expensive state building
ever built by Louisiana.
• Today, assests of the medical school, including buildings
and equipment, are "around $150 million," according to
officials of the school.
• The hospital has 369 beds.
• LSUMC employs 3,100 persons.
• There are 246 full-time faculty members, 117
part-time faculty members and 409 "part-time gratis" faculty
members.
\* There are 213 physicians in training at the school
(including residents and interns), and 12 people
attending the school on fellowships.
^ Other medical-related training programs at the
school include a School of Allied Health, which was instituted
to teach cardiopulmonary science, medical technology, physical therapy, and audiology
and speech pathology.
• Northwestern State University has a contractual agreement with
LSUMC, and some nursing students from Northwestern do their
clinical practice at LSUMC.
ally begin growth as an integrated medi-cal
center."
The fact that the medical school had its
own complex, as well as hospital, made it
possible for the school to recruit some of
the finest experts in the country — and the
world.
Today, walking down a corridor of the
hospital is not unlike walking down a cor-ridor
of the United Nations — not only can
regional accents from around America be
heard — but it is not unusual to hear ac-cents
from around the world.
What all this means for Shreveport and
Bossier is that medical students — many
of whom hail from the North Louisiana
area — are exposed to some of the newest
research as well as techniques in the
medical field.
And it means that patients being
treated at the hospital receive the ben-efits
of the training being received by the
students, as well as the expertise of the
faculty and staff.
But it also brings certain programs to
the area — programs that would probably
not be possible here were it not for the ex-istence
of the medical school.
In the Department of Surgery, which
works with organ transplants, there is a
computer which is hooked up to UNOS
(United Network for Organ Sharing) in
Richmond, Va. When an organ becomes
available, either here or elsewhere in the
country, the information is put through
the computer so that a suitable match can
be found.
In 1977, the Louisiana Regional Poison
Center was established at the school
under the auspicies of the Department of
Pharmacology and Therapeutics and
under contract from the Department of
Health and Human Resources.
This poison control center operates on
an around-the-clock basis, seven days a
week. It is staffed by full-time pharma-cists
and nurses. By calling the poison
control center, people in the community
can get information about poison, as well
Please see MEDICAL SCHOOL, Page 6-A