Linford Gehman ’59, a doctor serving a rural population in northern Rockingham Co. and across the border into West Virginia, still uses his iconic black bag on occasion. After graduating from what was then Eastern Mennonite College, he attended Jefferson Medical College, where he studied with Robert Gallo, one of the discoverers of the retrovirus that causes AIDS. After graduating from Medical College of Virginia in 1963, Gehman entered a residency that was cut short by a request from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to practice medicine in Vietnam and then Nigeria before returning to Virginia.

The journey to Vietnam marked the beginning of nearly five years of medical mission work for Gehman. He described his travels and experiences to an audience composed primarily of students and faculty in a seminar titled “Will the Glorious Respect for the Country Doctor (Health Care Provider) Continue into the Future?” this Jan. 12.

Upon arriving in Vietnam in April 1965, Gehman trained under and eventually replaced Carl Yoder, a physician MCC assigned to Vietnam long before the U.S. deployed its first foot soldiers in March 1965. Gehman worked in a hospital in the city of Nha Trang, treating the worst cases of cataracts and entropions, a complication resulting from the inward folding of the lower eyelid.

After more than three years in Vietnam, Gehman was reassigned by MCC in 1969 to Biafra, a secessionist state in southeastern Nigeria. There, he treated outpatients in conjunction with the military of the Igbo people, who failed in their efforts to secede in the three year-long Nigerian civil war. Hunger killed far more people than military weapons, causing Gehman to feel acutely aware of his privilege. “The experience was unpleasant, if not disastrous,” said Gehman of his year-long experience in Biafra. Even so, he “rather liked the adventurous aspect of medical relief work.”

When the Igbo leaders fled the country, indicating the end of the civil war, Gehman also left. He returned to the United States, refreshed his education at the University of Virginia, and began what turned into 45 years of providing healthcare through the Green Valley Clinic on Brocks Gap Rd. in Bergton, Va. (With , Gehman moves eight miles up the road to the E.A. Hawse Health Center in Mathias, W.Va., where he plans to work at least another two years, until he is 83.)

Gehman found examples throughout his life where old practices differ from modern ones. For example, he graduated about $6,000 dollars in debt, substantially less debt than most medical graduates face today. He also described performing cataract surgery “the old way, via dovetail incision through the sclera.” The “new way” is less invasive and less risky and requires no numbing or stitches. Medical charges to his patients have also increased from the maximum of $10 when he began at Green Valley Clinic.

Some things, however, never change. One might suspect that the sophistication of modern medicine has rendered the black bag carried by “horse-and-buggy doctors of years ago” obsolete, but Gehman still takes it when visiting home-bound patients.

Gehman shared his experience and contrasted his generation from the rising generation of medical doctors as part of . Students, faculty, alumni, and community members are welcome to the remaining seven seminars for this academic year.

Showalter was a medical director of an inpatient facility in the 1980s that detoxed and educated more than 1,000 people addicted to alcohol and drugs. People who went through that program and aftercare for one year had a 90% chance of long-term recovery, he said.

Showalter discussed addictions to alcohol, nicotine, work, and pornography, among others. He also referenced Gerald May, author of , and an anonymous article in Leadership Journal, called “An Anatomy of Lust,” in which the author discusses his addiction in a blunt and personal way.

Showalter dedicated much of his lecture to alcoholism. “If alcoholism is not a disease, than neither is sugar/diabetes, because they are almost exactly the same disease. They work the same way,” said Showalter.

An alcoholic or diabetic liver will treat the substance, either sugar or alcohol, differently than a healthy liver, he said. A normal liver will turn alcohol into a substance similar to vinegar. Explaining the disease in simple terms really benefits the patient, Showalter emphasized. For example, an alcoholic might be told that his or her brain makes increased amounts of dopamine, a chemical similar to morphine. “I think helping them to understand the physiological process… has really been one of the best motivating things that I’ve found.”

Many challenges interrupt the ability of doctors to treat addictions. Most insurance companies won’t pay for 28-day inpatient programs. Sometimes, the withdraw symptoms can make cold-turkey quitting dangerous without medical supervision – and gradual withdrawal may initially require a case of beer daily for a patient. This is not an easy population to treat: people with addictions tend to be less than honest to themselves and others. Despite these hardships, Showalter enjoyed a considerable degree of success in his practice at the Arlington (Va.) Treatment Center in the 1980s.

The repercussions of addiction affect people more than mentally and physically. Addiction has spiritual implications as well. Showalter cited May in saying, “To be alive is to be addicted, and to be alive and addicted is to be in need of God’s grace.”

Showalter recited 62 addictions from May’s list of about 100 behavioral addictions. Many of these addictions were commonly understood addictions, like tobacco and nail biting, while others were emotions or not usually thought of as addictions, like feeling anger and owning furniture. According to May and Showalter, all humans need grace to cope with addiction.

Showalter, who is now a family physician at the Green Valley Clinic in Bergton, Virginia, has deep roots in 91¶ĚĘÓƵ. Janice, his wife, is the daughter of his pre-med mentor, , the man for whom both the lecture series and 91¶ĚĘÓƵ’s are named.

The Suter Science Seminar series consists of 17 expert presentations – averaging two per month – during the fall and spring semesters. Visit emu.edu/science-seminars for information about future talks.