I first met Dr. Reynolds when I was in medical school. He practiced general medicine and in the addition to honing our diagnostic skills, he made the patient/doctor relationship a very important part of our training. Our first two years of training was at the classrooms of the University of Southern California's campus. Our second two years were spent on the vast Los Angeles County Hospital wards.
Although we were exposed to many specialties and many specialists at the hospital, our "home room teacher" was Dr. Reynolds. It was he who molded everything that we learned into a pattern that represented the comprehensive medical care expected of the family doctor. After I completed training and went into practice, it was not unusual to see doctor Reynolds at continuing educational functions.
Years after I became a practicing family physician, one of my patients presented with mysterious symptoms. I hospitalized her and was unable to determine the cause of her illness. None of my consultants could offer a cause or recommend a treatment.
I called my old professor Dr. Reynolds. He remembered me and offered to come and see my patient. After examining my patient he was also complexed by the symptoms. He noted that the mysterious illness was being reported in the international literature. Shortly thereafter, the international medical literature reported the cause of the mysterious illness and proposed a treatment, but no cure.
After 50 years of family practice, I'm retired and writing essays and books about medicine. Dr. Reynolds is long gone but still remembered. I'm proud to say that he was my mentor.
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