The Doctors Are In

It was kind of a two for one special for the local Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital in Glasgow. They attracted a new couple to Glasgow all the way from Sitka, Alaska. While the couple has been married since 2007, they might look at each other a little like newly weds. They started their first couple days of getting situated late last week, their first official day at work was Monday this week.

Dr. Donna Smith will be working at FMDH as an obstetrician and gynecologist (OBGYN), while her husband Dr. Robert "Bob" Crochelt will be the new general surgeon for FMDH. They're getting situated along with their furry family members and probably learning about the bitter cold of Northeaster Montana, which can sometimes be a bit cooler than Alaska.

While they'll be spending a lot of time at work, they're looking forward to sailing out on Fort Peck Lake and finding new hiking trails in the area. Dr. Smith is looking forward to the gardening season and learning a little about local techniques to grow some vegetables. She joked that it took her nearly a decade to grow a tomato in Alaska, it ended up being inside her home.

Dr. Crochelt – Surgeon

Dr. Crochelt explained that he grew up in New Jersey. He was around 9 years old when he decided he wanted to be a doctor. It was a doctor that helped him feel better after being sick from allergies for a span of time. He said that over the years his interest in being a doctor waxed and waned, but he had always leaned towards the scientific side.

He ended up going to school in New York City, and then went onto Philadelphia to attend Thomas Jefferson University. Ironically during his time there, Dr. Smith was living near campus but they never met. He eventually grew tired of the East Coast and wanted to try something different. He moved to San Francisco for his residency and said he got some good training there. He spent time working in Minnesota before taking a look at Alaska.

He explained that they were looking to be somewhere a little bit closer and more accessible to finish out their career. The couple had interviewed in several places and thought pretty seriously about going to California.

"We wanted a place where the people are nice, and Glasgow is extraordinary," Dr. Crochelt said. It'll be nice to be in a place a little more accessible."

Dr. Crochelt said that where they were in Alaska was similar in some ways. They were pretty isolated in their location. He met his wife in Ketchikan, Alaska, where they were coworkers for a long time before they got hitched.

He explained that they are looking forward to a lot of things about Glasgow, but he was excited to work for FMDH and said that he was hoping to add onto the staff. He said some highlights of his career is thinking about all the people he's helped get well.

"There are probably three to four people a month I've helped to get well, after 20 years of work that adds up," Dr. Crochelt said.

He explained that general surgeons have a broader focus. They help a lot of patients who find themselves injured. Surgeries on back, pelvis, abdominal and soft tissues are common in his work. He said that sometimes when looking at an advanced case they're able to recognize when special care is needed and a patient might need to go to a specialist.

"It's my job to help with the best possible outcome with survival," Dr. Crochelt said.

He said that he also does a lot of endoscopy, and screening for colon cancers and looking for ulcers or abnormal blood vessels and growth is a part of the job. That while the title surgeon comes with the job, not everything is about cutting up a patient. This will be his 22nd year in his career.

Over those two decades he explained that there have been lots of big changes. Some of those big changes are monitoring, electronic records and minimally invasive surgeries. He explained that a gallbladder surgery in the beginning of his career was a major surgery with large incisions that would have patients recovering for six weeks. Today that surgery is three to four incisions with maybe a week or two needed for recovery.

The changes have lowered death rates. He explained that some of the best techniques didn't come overnight, but a lot of the procedures were well thought out and well introduced and the newer techniques have changed people's lives.

"We're not quite where there are tricorders yet (a Star Trek reference)," Dr. Crochelt said. "But it's better quality of life and better quantity of life."

He's got a good attitude and is read to get to work at FMDH.

Dr. Smith – OBGYN

Dr. Smith grew up in Philadelphia and said that her calling came pretty early in life. She said she could remember as a young girl, maybe 6 years old, there was talk of chicken pox. She was at a friend's house playing and just wasn't feeling well. She saw spots on her stomach and when she went home she told her mom she had chicken pox. Her mom didn't think that was the case and when she pulled up her shirt to show her mom the spots her mom was surprised to see she was right.

From that moment on she decided that she wanted to be a doctor. She wasn't sure what kind of doctor she wanted to be. She looked at neurosurgery, but she decided that she wanted to be working with the "happy stuff."

She trained at Temple University. She also was looking for a change of pace and looked at a job in Alaska. She moved to Ketchikan, the same year Dr. Crochelt did. She signed up for a two-year contract but she fell in love with the town and the people. She said that it was a good place and she could be a lot more independent there. She was with a partner, but the partner left and for a long time she operated on her own.

She's been practicing for 21 years now and one of her highlights was speaking at a graduation commencement ceremony. One of her friends figured out that she had delivered around 50 percent of the 2012 graduates. She thought that in one family alone she had probably delivered around 20 babies. She was pretty nervous delivering the speech. She explained that she watched several commencement speeches and tried to figure out what to say that wouldn't bore them.

"I thought it went well, they laughed, they cheered," Dr. Smith said. "On Facebook I asked if I could still call myself an Alaskan and a friend, a teacher replied, if anyone could use the words vagina and uterus in a commencement speech I probably could."

The couple left Ketchikan for West Virginia right after they married to move closer to Dr. Smith's family. But Alaska was calling them back. They went back to Sitka, a smaller town. She said that it just didn't connect the same as Ketchikan and the couple decided to make a change. They knew that they enjoyed remote areas where they could make a bigger difference.

Dr. Smith said that there haven't been huge changes in her profession. Other than less invasive surgeries and electronic records, women have been having babies a long time so some things just wouldn't change. She said that she does like to take a more hands off approach and one thing she loves about her job is most of her patients are healthy. She also enjoys building relationships and trust with patients.

"There's not a lot better than a delivery, most of the time I don't do much in delivery," Dr. Smith said. "But I'm there and they can trust that I'm there to help make it easier."

She explained that she's worked with midwives over the years and her less invasive approach is probably a better way to go. She said that she enjoys the surgery aspect when it's needed as well. The combination of patient care and surgery makes her job a good fit. She explained that when the heart rate doesn't go up anymore, when she's no longer excited about a deliver she'll know it's time to retire.