It was an ordinary day. Reading about Dr. John L. Farmer who entered Franklin & Marshall College after attending public school. His father, Dr. C.R. Farmer, felt it was important to go to public school if you were going to be doctor so you knew how to talk to all kinds of people. When his father taught bandaging to the nurses, John went with him and was the model on which he performed his bandaging. John was 16 when he began F&M with a tuition of $300 a year, graduating in 1932. After applying, he was accepted at Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Jefferson Medical College, but his father influenced him to go to his alma mater, Jefferson. He began in September of 1932 and graduated in 1936. He then interned at Pennsylvania Hospital, followed by a surgical residency with Dr. Walter E. Lee and Dr. Henry P. Brown. Pennsylvania Hospital is the oldest hospital in the country with an operating amphitheater that is now a museum. When he finally became a resident, he was given $20 a month for the first year. Pennsylvania Hospital was primarily a charity hospital. One of his fist patients was a gangster by the name of Avena who came into the Emergency Room needing help. By the time he had returned with the blood, the gangster had died. The ER Supervisor came running and told everyone to close all the doors and windows. She then told Dr. Farmer to go out in the street and get a cab and bring it right up to the door. The cab arrived promptly and the supervisor said to get everyone in the cab and get them out of there. Dr. John Farmer began practice in September, 1940. His dad, Dr. C.R. Farmer, bought a row house next door in which to set up practice for Dr. John. His dad told him that he should not expect to get paid for more than 50% of the work that he does. He told him not to worry, since that is just the way it is! Dr. C.R. also told him to always have change for a $100 bill in the office for making change. He always gave advice by example, based on his experience. At the time, all doctors had evening hours. C.R. told his son, "John, you can go to the office in the evening, I'm not going anymore!" Dr. John did that for some time, but then decided that it wasn't necessary, so he told his dad that "I'll have evening hours two nights a week." After a year he reduced it to one night a week and later stopped evening hours. In 1939 the war had already started in Europe so Dr. Charles Mitchell of Pennsylvania Hospital, who had been in WWI, organized a reserve unit for doctors. Dr. John volunteered figuring it would be better to be with a bunch of friends if you're going to get in the war. Dr. John Farmer served four years in WWII as a major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He worked in an evacuation hospital in New Caledonia in the South Pacific. When he returned home in 1945 he was just happy to be home. His father was in need of help in Lancaster. Two years later he married Mary Lou Hollinger Long. He worked in surgical services at the General Hospital. After WWII ended, RCA and Armstrong Cork Co. began company benefits and the hospital became very busy. At the time the hospital had no air conditioning and the operating rooms were on the fourth floor. Dr. John eventually began a private practice. He did the first complete colectomy and ileostomy for ulcerative colitis in Lancaster in the 1950s. In 1957 he became the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at LGH. John was more a generalist than his father C.R. He gave polio shots, fixed broken bones, removed sixth fingers and toes on the Amish and did mastectomies, appendectomies, gall bladder surgery and much more. He had six children of his own who followed him around in the hospital from time to time. Dr. John was the kind of person with a quiet strength that was comforting. The type of doctor I love to have. He was president of the Lancaster City and County Medical Society from 1976 to 1977. He was also a Diplomat of the American Boards of Surgeons, serving as a member of their board of Governors, representing Pennsylvania. In the late 1970s, Dr. Farmer felt faint in the operating room and had to lie down on the floor. Shortly thereafter he had a pacemaker implanted. He retired from practice in 1980 on the day before his insurance ran out. Sounded like a good idea to me also. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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