COLONEL JOHN FEAGIN

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My favorite memory of Sir John

 

    We all have fond memories of special times and events with Sir John but picking the one that best exemplifies the magnificent persona we knew and loved is the difficult choice.

 

   One of my favorites relates to early ambulation and its role in decreasing the risk of pulmonary embolus (PE).  Within days of beginning my Fellowship (Jan 1972) a patient on my Ward suffered a life threatening PE as she was being mobilized by physio for a walk.  The policy in those days was two to three weeks of bedrest for the trochanter to "settle in".  I was shaken by the experience and brought the article I had written on early ambulation of hip fractures after Deyerle fixation to Charnley and asked if we could pursue a similar program on my Ward.  He received my article, promised to review it and consider the request.

 

  I was new at Wrightington, naive, impressed and appreciative.  The next day he called me in and reviewed my article - pointing out that even though it was J.B.J.S. published it was written like an American and was not strong of science.  However, the idea of early ambulation appealed to him and he was willing for me to give it a try.  I was thrilled.  Immediately Sister Barnes and the Physios began planning with me.  Out of bed the morning following surgery to walk with physio unless there was a contraindication or Sister felt the patient was not up to the task.  All went amazingly smoothly and well until - you guessed it - patient number one in our series had a pulmonary embolus on day 14. 

 

   I was standing at the door to Sir Johns office when he arrived the next morning with the bad news.  I had no idea how he might react.  He understood how I felt as a Physician who had lost a patient and was gentle with me.  The next day he called me in and said he wanted to continue the early ambulation program - "one swallow does not make a spring".  The Program continued on my Ward for the duration of my Fellowship and we had no further episodes of PE.

 

   The most striking and apparent result, however, was that the patients were ready to go home much sooner and there was an energy to the Ward that was noticeable to all.  That was not quite the end of the story as several weeks into our "experiment" I received a call from the private ward asking if I would implement this program on their ward.  Obviously, Sir John liked what he saw on Wednesday rounds. 

 

   When it came time for our Fellowship group to say goodbye we were invited to dinner at the Charnleys and I wondered what I or he might say about the early ambulation program..  As we shook hands goodbye that night he simply said - "you have made a difference".  I could not have asked for more and on reflection realized that maybe the most important statistic of the experiment was that we increased the turnover rate of patients on the Private Ward by 30% (as well as on my Ward).  It was gratifying too that we seemed to at least be doing something preventive in terms of the PE problem.

 

  Of course there are other examples of Sir John's inspiring approach to the hip, the patient and success but in my small world and time shared this sequence of events taught me more about the man than any other.

 

 With gratitude 

 

John Feagin