close

Canonsburg doctor retires after 41 years of service

4 min read
article image -

While sitting on a beach in Hilton Head, S.C., with his family 15 years ago, Dr. Gene Hammell got a call out of the blue from Canonsburg Hospital informing him that Dr. John Lee, the hospital’s anesthesiologist and Hammell’s longtime friend, had just had emergency heart bypass surgery.

“He had chest pain for like six months, but he didn’t want to do anything about it because he was working,” Hammell exclaimed exasperatedly as Lee sat beside him, chuckling cheerfully.

At the time, Hammell and another surgeon handled most of the hospital’s operations, so when they scheduled vacations over the same two weeks, the operating room’s caseload slowed to a trickle. Lee took this chance to see a doctor about the pain, who told him he should be operated on immediately.

After his surgery, Lee spared little time for recovery and was back on the job within two weeks.

“People are off for months, but not him,” Hammell said. “He came back, he still had stitches in. He’s crazy.”

Since 1977, Lee’s calm and steady presence in Canonsburg Hospital’s operating room has been quite close to constant. One year, the 80-year-old Lee recounted nonchalantly, he worked 365 days straight with no time off. But this will change when, after 41 years of service, Lee retires at the end of this month.

Over the course of Lee’s career, which has taken him from the hospital’s original location on Barr Street to where it now stands in North Strabane Township, he estimates he has worked more than 100,000 cases, comforting patients before they undergo operations and seeing that they stay safely sedated throughout their procedures.

“His calmness is reassuring to patients,” said Hammell, who has worked with Lee in the operating room for almost 30 years. “Usually they’re in a high state of anxiety, but he’ll hold their hand and say, ‘It’s all going to be OK.'”

And, Hammell said, Lee means these words sincerely. For four decades, Lee has taken “extraordinary care” of patients and has insisted that the hospital purchase state-of-the-art anesthesia equipment to allow him to do so.

Lee has dedicated more time to the hospital than Chief Medical Officer Thomas Corkery said anyone would expect from an individual.

Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter

Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter

Dr. John Lee, front center, stands with some of his colleagues he has worked alongside in the 41 years he has spent at Canonsburg Hospital as an anesthesiologist.

“If he was needed, he was here,” Corkery said.

Even Mother Nature could not keep Lee away from work when he was on call. Once, undeterred by an ice storm that had left roads in dangerous condition, Lee drove to the hospital from his home in Peters Township, even after losing control of his car and skidding into his neighbor’s yard.

“No problem,” Lee said with a smile as Hammell roared with laughter at the memory.

In addition to his patients, Lee had a deep commitment to his co-workers, who sometimes spent more time with him than they did their own families. Each year, he threw a Christmas party for his workplace.

Carolyn Gesselberty, a secretary in the operating room, said she still has the boots she bought with the Macy’s gift card Lee gave her one Christmas. She teared up when she thought about what it will be like to not see Lee when she comes in to work.

“He really gave his heart to this place,” she said. “He’s just special. There’s no other word for it.”

In all of his time working with Lee, Hammell said he has never once heard the doctor complain or speak a harsh word to another individual, even if they made a mistake. Lee, who Hammell said is like his older brother, “just takes it all in stride.”

“When the day’s been tough and people have done crazy things to you, be it patients or other doctors, I’d sit down with him and John would put his hand on me,” Hammell said. “He’d say, ‘Everything’s going to be OK. Slow and steady. Take a deep breath. Don’t get mad.'”

After Lee hangs up his scrubs, he will turn his attention to babysitting his two great-grandchildren. But he said he will never forget the relationships and friendships he forged during his time at Canonsburg Hospital.

“This is my second home,” he said. “For the last 41 years, I have spent my life here, and I will never forget.”

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today