An Appalachian Doctor and His Patients - Paperback

by W. B. Barton M. D. (Author)

The Great nineteenth-century French physician Laennec advised the doctor, "Listen Listen to your patient He is giving you the diagnosis." Throughout his more than fifty years of practicing medicine in the Appalachians, Dr. W. Baynard Barton, the author of this book, has heeded Laennec's words. With compassionate, attentive listening, with kindness and understanding, Dr.Barton has aided his patients' emotional and mental health as well as their physical problems. In the early days of his practice, as frequently the only doctor in a remote and rugged area, he performed all types of medicine-from delivering babies to delicate eye surgery, to treating the maiming accidents of the coal mines and the logging camps. What made his work even more difficult was the fact that he had only his own intelligence and ability to depend on; there were few other doctors or sophisticated hospital equipment to help him in earlier years. To read this book is to step back in American history to a time when the doctor-patient relationship was a close and very human one.

Author Biography

W.B.Barton was born in South Carolina and received his early education there. He later attended Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, where he received both his bachelor's and M.D. degrees. Dr. Barton tried to follow the golden rule all his life abstaining from the vices and excesses that modern society has fallen prey to. He passed away in 1989, after a long and fruitful life. Dr. Barton was well loved and respected by family, friends, and the patients he served.