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When he opened his practice in Norman in 1962, Dr. Gerald McCullough had the only medical practice in town dedicated to surgery.
"Until then, doctors were doing their own surgeries," he recalls, but they quickly began directing patients to one who had specialized in surgical procedures.
Now in his late 70s, he continues his practice in general and vascular surgery for two reasons. "I still enjoy surgery and I want to take care of people," he says. He also feels an obligation to take care of the older population. "We have grown old together, and someone has to take care of them," he says, pointing out that many surgeons won't deal with the fixed rates of Medicare, thus eliminating services to many.
Dr. McCullough also often takes care of other special patients, those who don't have insurance. "They need help and someone has to take care of them." He has limited his practice now to about half the number of patients that he once saw on an ordinary day. On the day of the interview, he was at the hospital by 7:30 a.m. to perform three procedures, a laparoscopic gall bladder removal, a hernia repair, and removal of a medication port. By noon he was back in his office to rest a bit before he began to see patients.
Dr. McCullough is a Bartlesville native who attended College High. Anxious to get as much education as he could, his high school senior year he took several college courses and entered OU in 1947 as a second semester freshman. His OU experiences still bring smiles as he recalls intramural sports, and serving on the Student Senate. "We advocated that black students be allowed to enroll, and that was before Ada Lois Sipuel", who entered the OU law school in 1949. Following graduation Dr. McCullough entered the OU Medical School. Of the 80 graduates in the class of 1954, he is one of three still practicing medicine.
Dr. McCullough's decision to specialize in surgery was borne from his early experiences with an uncle who had a family practice. "I scrubbed in and went into surgery with him some times". He is proud to have been studying surgery at a time of the cutting edge of the use of synthetic materials, including Marlex, a medical mesh developed at Phillips research center in Bartlesville. His father was head of that Phillips division at that time and sent his son some of the product, saying "why don't you try using some of this."
During his residency, he worked with Dr. Nazih Zuhdi, who later became renowned for heart transplantation. Dr. McCullough participated in the first 10 open heart surgeries performed in Oklahoma. "I was involved in the first graph of synthetic materials in by-pass surgery," using techniques they practiced on laboratory dogs. Following graduation, he entered the Air Force. As chief of surgery at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base in South Carolina, he gained lots of experience in general surgery since that base hospital served airmen and their dependents from several bases in the area.
Returning to Norman to open his own practice, he found the need for his skills to be urgent, and varied. His days were filled with general surgery and treating accident victims. Having had a six-month rotation in pathology while in residency, he even was tapped to do post mortem examinations on deceased patients at Central State Hospital.
It was his work in the hospital emergency room that led to him becoming a nationally known figure in trauma care. "It wasn't unusual for me to be called to the emergency room five nights a week" where he treated a wide variety of traumatic injuries. He developed skills in trauma care, and saw a need for others to learn. It became a specialty which has taken him around the United States teaching doctors how to stabilize trauma patients.
"You have to stabilize the patients, inserting chest tubes and such, before they are sent on" for specialized care, he says. It was a new field in the 1960s, and he became recognized as an expert. Designated an instructor for the American College of Surgeons, he taught advanced trauma life support in medical schools around the country. Many of his former students now run trauma centers in major cities. "I get a feeling of pride when I can say 'I used to teach that boy.'"
Dr. McCullough set up cameras in the Norman hospital emergency room in those early days, capturing photos of some of the unique traumas he treated, photos that were used in his classes. An associate clinical professor of surgery at the OU Health Science Center, he is amused to tell that his own son, while in medical training, thought his father's lecture on trauma care was boring. "He had already seen all of the photos."
Dr. McCullough helped establish an ambulance service in Norman in the late 1960s, recalling the days when the funeral homes were contacted to transport a patient after an accident. "Of course funerals were their first priority". He still serves as a medical advisor to the ambulance service.
Early in his career, he was appointed to the Oklahoma Health System Agency, an agency which reviews and approves hospital expansions and even the purchase of major equipment by hospitals in the state. For ten years, he gave the agency one Thursday a month. Was he paid for taking a day from his practice? "I got a dinner out of it," he mused.
Twice elected Chief of Staff at the Norman hospital, he has served as president of both the Oklahoma Surgical Association and the Oklahoma Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. He represented the State of Oklahoma on the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons.
Having moved into the senior category in Norman's medical community, he feels that his job now "is to speak out on some of these issues," such as tort reform. "I know that there are times when things happen, and we must take care of the patients." But he is dismayed by the huge awards, "especially when fifty percent goes into the lawyer's pockets. There are going to be incidents, and we need to be fair to the patients," he says. The large awards designated by juries have driven up the price of malpractice insurance costs until some doctors are choosing to close their practice. He indicating that when he was carrying a heavier patient load, he paid as much as $45,000 a year in insurance fees, "and there are some doctors with other types of surgical practices which are paying twice that."
But his love of the medical field and serving his patients is just one facet of Dr. McCullough. He has enjoyed a lifelong love of music and sports and which he continued in intramural sports at OU. He still plays the piano "for my own enjoyment" and plays for his Sunday School class at McFarlin Methodist Church each Sunday.
He and his wife, Marilyn, have three daughters and a son, who is a physician. They have seven grandchildren, including two granddaughters who are studying medicine. The McCulloughs enjoy hiking and have visited all the national parks in the United States. They particularly like Glacier National Park, and enjoy hiking several miles each day shooting photos along the way. After being warned of "a bear incident" in the park, they carry only water and cameras, not wanting to have food which might attract a bear. Photos, like those on the walls in his office, bring back many pleasant memories for them. "I just love getting out and seeing the wilderness. Then I come home, close my eyes, and dream a little." He also has great memories of annual trips to Jamaica for snorkeling. Although he hasn't snorkeled for several years, he has continued friendships with people in the medical community there.
Most Thursdays at noon, Dr. McCullough takes time to attend the Norman Rotary Club where he enjoys "great relationships" with people from the community. He returns in the early afternoon to his office. He is recuperating from a fall on the ice which resulted in four broken ribs. While his contemporaries are retiring, Dr. McCullough plans to continue his practice because, he says humbly, "I want to take care of people."
