125 years of healing, teaching

Doctors look back at contributions of CU's medical school on its anniversary

By Julie Hutchinson, Special to the Rocky

Published October 3, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Brian Lehmann / The Rocky

Dr. David Stephenson holds a well-used medical bag at his home recently. He's a 1948 CU med school grad, and later taught there.

Photo by Matt McClain / The Rocky

Dr. Elisabeth Pickett, 90, was one of four women to graduate from CU med school in 1944. She finished in three years.

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University of Colorado surgeons performed the world's first liver transplant - at the School of Medicine in 1963.

Years earlier, a CU doctor discovered that immersing patients in ice-water baths slowed their metabolism for open-heart surgery.

The school boasts its share of medical breakthroughs, but former students and patients will tell you its greatest contribution is the thousands of doctors, scientists, researchers, physical therapists and physicians' assistants it has produced over the years.

Many of them will be on hand Saturday to help celebrate the school's 125th anniversary at the Colorado Convention Center.

Today, a handful share their memories.

Dr. Elisabeth Pickett

* Retired urologist, Aurora

Class of 1944

Elisabeth Pickett was one of four women to graduate from CU medical school in 1944, explains her niece, Colleen Doyle. Pickett, now 90, communicates through her niece because she has difficulty speaking and hearing.

Pickett, a chemistry major at CU-Boulder, was in her first year of medical school when the United States entered World War II.

"They told the medical students they were going to go to school nonstop, including summers, because they were needed overseas, and that's that. Every man did go overseas," said Doyle.

Pickett, who finished medical school in three years instead of four, headed east instead.

"One of her male professors pulled her aside and told her she would do a lot better in New York City, that she would be accepted there," Doyle said. "So she did her residency at Kings County hospital, 72-hour shifts."

In 1962, Pickett was the first female to be board-certified in urology. She spent her entire professional life in New York City.

These days Pickett returns to the Boulder campus for concerts and has toured the new Anschutz Medical Campus several times.

"She loves the university," Doyle said of her aunt.

Dr. David Stephenson

* Retired radiologist, Denver

Class of 1948

David Stephenson grimly recalls the polio epidemic that swept through Denver and the rest of the country in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

He remembers the sound of the iron lungs that allowed people paralyzed by polio to breathe. The iron lungs were too large to fit in hospital rooms, so they lined the hallways of the Denver hospitals where Stephenson worked as a student doctor.

"It was an eerie sound and an eerie feeling."

When a polio vaccine became available in the mid-1950s, Stephenson was one of a group of volunteer doctors who administered shots to thousands of children at Denver schools .

Stephenson worked as a battalion surgeon in the Korean War. He returned to Denver in the mid-1950s. He was chief of radiology at Lutheran Medical Center for 25 years and taught at CU med school.

Dr. James Neisler

* Retired gynecological oncologist, Denver. Class of 1958

James Neisler was born in Boulder, earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry at CU Boulder and went straight to CU medical school.

"CU was the only one I could afford and the only one I wanted to go to," Neisler said.

He had wanted to be a doctor - the first person in his family to go into medicine - since he was a child. While he was a student at Boulder High School, a student athlete was struck down by polio "and he never played another down of anything," Neisler recalled. "It was so close to home and seemed so destructive to me as a high school kid. That's a thing you never forget."

Neisler spent 20 years as a doctor in the Air Force, then worked as a medical school professor in Ohio and maintained a private practice. He returned to Colorado when he retired.

Neisler reserves his deepest admiration for Gilbert Blount, a professor of cardiology at CU med school whose lessons endured long after Neisler left his classroom.

"I diagnosed my own coronary artery disease a few years ago," Neisler said. "I just remembered what the old cardiology prof at the school used to say. So I took myself in and everybody asked 'How did you know?' I said, 'I just knew.' "

Dr. Kerry Brega

* Neurosurgeon and professor of neurosurgery, Greenwood Village

Class of 1984

Kerry Brega is a brain surgeon, but is quick to put people at ease about her credentials.

"Oh, it's not that hard," Brega insists.

A graduate of Cherry Creek High School, Brega veered off the family track when she chose medical school instead of law school after she earned her bachelor's degree at CU.

By the time Brega took a seat in the classroom at CU med school, women were no more a rarity. But what remains a rarity is women who choose neurosurgery, Brega said, "although our program at the University of Colorado has trained an unusual number of women."

She is fiercely proud of her CU roots and of the university's standing.

"Snobbery has little to no effect on any of us because you can't convince me Johns Hopkins has anything on the University of Colorado," Brega said.

Dr. E'Stephan Garcia

* Orthopedic surgery intern, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, Texas. Class of 2008

E'Stephan Garcia grew up in Greeley and was thrilled when he was accepted by CU med school.

"I wanted to come to Colorado for school to be close to family," Garcia said. "And the University of Colorado was the only one that accepted me. I applied to 12 medical schools."

Garcia, now a captain in the Army, graduated from West Point. But his route to West Point was not a straight shot, either.

Garcia was kicked out of Greeley West High School for poor attendance but managed to graduate on time. He decided skipping school and smoking pot had to end and the only way to escape his old life was to leave home.

Garcia enlisted in the Army. He loved the structure of the military and thrived in his work as a medic.

After a couple of years, Garcia's ambitions extended beyond the enlisted ranks.

"I started asking questions about how to become an officer," Garcia said. "A platoon leader was a West Point grad and suggested I apply."

Fast-forward eight years to the May 2008 graduation ceremony of the CU med school. Garcia was a featured speaker.

Garcia is eager to move ahead with his life but deeply grateful to CU med school.

"It was fabulous," Garcia said. "A lot of classmates coming from regular colleges felt they were cramped for time. I had the opposite perspective. Coming from West Point, I felt I had a ton of free time because every hour was not scheduled for me. Not that medical school was easy, by any means."

CU School of Medicine at 125

The University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine will be celebrating its 125th anniversary with two events this week.

* Today, more than 1,100 middle school, high school and college students will view interactive exhibits on medical technology at the Colorado Convention Center, in Halls 400 and 500. The exhibits will be on display from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event is not open to the public.

* Saturday, more than 800 people are expected for the "Fantasy MD" gala, also at the Colorado Convention Center. The black tie event starts at 5 p.m. It is open to the public, and tickets can be purchased at the door for $500 per person.

* Proceeds from the gala will go to the School of Medicine Innovations Fund.

* An order form for tickets can be obtained online at: uchsc.edu/som/fantasymd

* For more information on the gala, call: 303-724-4252.

CU medical school through the years:

* 1883: CU med school held its first classes in Old Main on the Boulder campus with two professors and two students.

* 1891: First woman graduated from CU med school.

* 1925: CU med school leaves Boulder campus and opens a 17-acre campus in Denver at East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

* Early 1950s: CU med school's Dr. Henry Swan revolutionized open-heart surgery by immersing a patient in a tub of ice water to slow metabolism before surgery.

* 1962: Ground broken for a new hospital and clinical-research wing at East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

* 1963: CU med school's Dr. Thomas Starzl, a trailblazer in kidney transplants, performed the first liver transplant in history at the CU med school campus .

* 1998: Plans were developed to move the medical school to a new campus in Aurora.

* 2008: First class graduated from CU med school's new campus at the Anschutz Medical Center in Aurora.

Vital statistics

4thRank among public medical schools in research grant dollars.

47%of students in the 2007 entering class are women.

37%of doctors graduating in 2007 will remain in Colorado for their residency, or return after one year to complete a residency.

50% of physician graduates will establish practices in Colorado.

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