My Writings

My first book Nevada EMS - A History of Emergency Medical Services in Nevada is now available as a free downloadable PDF file. Get your copy here. The file is about 159MB, so please be patient as it downloads.

Those words can make the physician shudder. In the years before 1970, approximately, the words translated to, “Do all the tests and treatments you think might help mom get over her condition, or at least make her comfortable.” In the mid to late 1960’s it became...

“You have diabetes,” I tell the lady sitting in my examining room as I review some laboratory blood test results with her. She knew she had diabetes. Her mother had died from diabetes. Her two sisters have diabetes and had already checked her blood sugar levels with...

In one of my practice locations I became friendly with an accountant. His wife, his mother, his mother-in-law, and his father-in-law were all my patients. I thought I knew the family pretty well, but there were hidden secrets. On the occasion of his mother’s periodic...

(Originally published by Nevada Humanities, www.nevadahumanities.org, on July 12, 2021.) Each evening as I sit at the kitchen table my view is of the Virginia Range. For 26 years I have watched the light and shadows on the ridges and gullies of the Virginias sharpen,...

The recent spate of earthquakes experienced in Northern Nevada reminded me of my first Nevada earthquake in 1959. I was the doctor on call at the USPHS Indian Hospital in Schurz, NV. My housing was next door to the hospital so a call from the nurse that a lady in...

Each evening as I sit at the kitchen table my view is of the Virginia Range. For 26 years I have watched the light and shadows on the ridges and gullies of the Virginias sharpen, soften, then fade into darkness and change with the seasons. The scene has always been...

Dr. Elwood Schmidt addressed members of the Mesquite Club in Las Vegas, NV on April 9th.  Schmidt said his book was written as a glimpse back into medical practice in small towns throughout the southwest in the mid to late 20th century and even early 21st century.  He...

Paul Harvey was a well known 20th century and early 21st  century radio broadcaster with a large audience. For years on his radio show Paul Harvey would tell us “The Rest of the Story” in which a well known narrative became more fully understandable or had a different...

George Bernard Shaw said, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place.” A doctor and a patient must communicate.  Here is the story of an interview where communication truly was an illusion.  I was seeing a man I had seen...