SMALL TOWN PHYSICIAN
One Man’s Passion for His Profession and Patients
“When you’re a physician, you have a real sense of accomplishment,”
Merkel said. “After all these years of practicing medicine, I still feel
like I’m making a difference.”
Merkel tells the story of his father, who farmed in Rozel, Kan., until
his mid-80s. One day his two younger brothers started pestering
their father to retire.
“What do you do when you retire?” the father asked.
“Retirement means you can do whatever you want,” they replied.
“Okay, I think I’ll retire,” he said.
“ That’s great!” the overjoyed brothers exclaimed. “What are you going
to do with all your free time?”
“Well, I think I’d like to farm for a while,” the father replied.
When Dr. Merkel arrived in Russell in 1958 after attending
medical school at KU, Bob Dole was county attorney. Merkel and a
classmate opened a practice in the basement of a one-story brick
structure that originally housed Russell’s first hospital, but had
been taken over by an oil company. Although his partners changed
several times, the location stayed the same until 2003. That year,
Merkel moved to the new Russell Regional Hospital Physicians
Clinic. His patients followed him.
“When I think of Dr. Merkel, I see a person who can always
make me smile,” said Josie Sellens, who was one of Merkel’s first
patients. Merkel has treated four generations of Sellens’ family. “I
always get a grin from him because I give him a lot of flak.”
“You see how he has all those KU posters around here?” Sellens
continued. “One day I asked him why he didn’t have any up for
K-State. He stopped, gave me a look and said ‘Oh give me a hug
and get out of here.’”
For 50 years, Merkel’s approach to medicine has not changed. He
asks the patient what’s wrong, then does a complete examination.
“He’s very organized and very thorough,” said Barb Bowman, who
has been a nurse on Merkel’s staff for 33 years. “He starts at the top
of the body and works his way down. He checks all the systems.
Even if you come in here with a cold, he checks out everything.”
Until recently, Merkel would arrive around seven in the morning
and work until nine at night. He’d work in the emergency room,
deliver babies, perform surgery and see about 40 to 55 patients a
day, six days a week. Now he works four 12-hour days each week,
seeing 20 to 30 patients each day. Other doctors in the hospital
handle surgeries and staff the emergency rooms. Bowman said
she thinks Merkel’s ability to work long hours stems from his time
growing up on the farm.
“I probably would have been just as happy to be a farmer,” Merkel
said. “I told my dad I didn’t want to go to college, but there were
four boys and he didn’t think he had enough land for all of us to
work. As the second-oldest, he sent me to college for a year, and
I got hooked.”
Sellens said when she was hospitalized, it wasn’t unusual for
Merkel to show up in her room at 9:30 p.m., just before heading
home to dinner, and that he frequently visited her mother in a
nursing home on his Sundays off.
“I want you to look at this,” Merkel said, pointing at a
blue car in the front row of the parking lot. “That’s a
1968 Toronado. I bought it new and drive it to work
every day. I found out the difference between trading in
cars could help send someone to school, so I’ve kept it.
That’s why I’m so proud of it.”
©
The University of Kansas Medical Center