I Perspectives

Remembering Dr. Kernohan: "She enjoyed helping people"

Barbara Yaffe

r. Mary Kernohan who chose a career that allowed fore she came home from work; D used to fly out of her to do that in an intimate way. her car keys and some money Nain and Goose Bay Mary Kernohan was mur- were stolen and her pick-up truck in a single-engine dered last fall. She was 32. Ac- was driven to another part of plane to deliver medical care to cording to Sgt. Joseph Macdonald town, where it was discovered by people living in remote villages of the Royal Canadian Mounted police. on Labrador's rugged coast. Police (RCMP) in Goose Bay, she Court proceedings are pend- Sometimes weather would ex- was beaten "viciously" with a ing to review the provincial tend a brief visit to a week or baseball bat on Nov. 13 and died court's January decision to try the more and snow drifts would be 8 days later. The murder left boy in adult court. If he is tried so severe she would have to many people dazed - residents and convicted in youth court, the crawl out a second-storey win- of Happy Valley/Goose Bay, her maximum sentence would be 3 dow in order to leave her nurs- family in Nova Scotia and her years' imprisonment; in adult ing-station office. fiance and colleague, Dr. David court, he could face life imprison- She was a woman with a Beach. ment. sense of fun and adventure and Just 2 hours after a neigh- Neither Beach nor the Ker- strong convictions about public bour found her, lying bloodied in nohan family is too preoccupied service, a high school valedictori- the kitchen of her Happy Valley with the upcoming court pro- an who liked helping people and home, a 16-year-old boy was ar- ceedings or with the fate of the rested and charged with second- murderer, beyond wanting the Barbara Yaffe is a freelance writer living degree murder. Police say the justice system to protect other in St. John's, Nfld. house was broken into just be- innocent Canadians. "We have no feelings of bit- terness", Andrew Kernohan, Mary's older brother, says on behalf of his family. Nor has the Kernohan family any harsh feelings towards the Labrador community where Mary died. They are just dis- mayed. "It was not the sort of thing you'd expect", says Andrew. "This is something you might expect to happen in New York City." In fact, Labrador is not con- sidered a risky place to practise medicine, or to live. RCMP re- cords show that there was only one other murder in Happy Val- ley/Goose Bay in the past de- Practising in Labrador agreed with Kernohan, whose self-reliant nature cade, and that happened 2 years served her well. ago. More frequent are alcohol- CMAJ, VOL. 136, JUNE 1, 1987 1193 By John Eastcott and Yva Momatiuk, copyright 1986 National Geographic Society Fs

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19 CMJ O.13,JN 98 related murders and suicides in the summer of 1984 and became was like going to see a friend Labrador's isolated outports. Jen- district medical officer for three who happened to be a doctor. nifer Doyle, a spokesman for the communities on the Labrador "She gave me a cortisone Newfoundland Medical Associa- coast, travelling from Goose Bay shot in my elbow on one occa- tion, says that although the Ker- every 6 weeks to spend 2 to 4 sion and I think it hurt her as nohan murder is considered days in each one. much as it hurt me. She was very "very upsetting and distressing Beach says her self-reliant concerned about not hurting me ... incidents of violence can nature served her well on the too much." [happen] anywhere to anyone". coast, where there was no chance Saunders reacted to news of Kernohan was buried in her of getting a second medical opin- her death with "absolute horror home town of Parrsboro, NS, - it just paralysed the whole after a church service that community". crammed St. George's Anglican Dr. Roger Butler, who corre- Church with her friends and rela- sponded with Kernohan because tives. The family is well known of his position as secretary- in Parrsboro, partly because her treasurer of the Newfoundland father, David, a general practi- chapter of Physicians for Social tioner and farmer, has been prac- Responsibility, says she was in- tising medicine there for more strumental in organizing a Labra- than three decades. dor unit of the organization. Andrew Kernohan says his The Newfoundland chapter sister was inspired to study medi- has established a Mary Kernohan cine by watching her father. Memorial Fund, which will pro- "Certainly my father encouraged vide a trip for one Newfoundland it", he recalls. "She [was] good medical student to the annual with people. I think she [enjoyed] Intemational Physicians for the helping people." Prevention of Nuclear War con- An old schoolmate, Frank ference. Skidmore, remembers "a very "She was such a peaceful outgoing, jovial type of individu- person", Butler recalls. "How al with a great sense of humour. ion. Resources were rudimentary ironic that such a peace-loving She was an excellent student, - basically, a doctor's office person could meet such a violent very dedicated to her work, and and Kernohan handled every- end. It seems a gross injustice. she participated in a lot of sports thing from prenatal care and pe- The irony of the whole thing is activities. diatrics to the suturing of lacera- just amazing." "She mentioned to me that tions. Beach, a family practitioner she enjoyed practising medicine "It was a difficult thing", and chief of staff at the Melville in remote areas", says Skidmore, says Beach. "You have to be Hospital, shared her concern for now a Mountie stationed in ready to go out there and have world peace. Happy Valley/Goose Bay. "She these howling emergencies pres- The 31-year-old native of liked to be out in the wilds...." ent themselves and know you Frankfurt, Ont., says Kernohan After graduating in medicine may be there [stranded by the had contemplated specializing in from Dalhousie University in weather] for some time. She was internal medicine, but instead de- 1981, she interned in Winnipeg very independent minded." cided to remain in Goose Bay to and then joined Grenfell Region- She was also keenly aware get married. They had planned to al Health Services, an integrated of the risks of flying to her coast- continue practising in Labrador regional health service serving al communities in a small plane for a few more years, and had northern Newfoundland and that was equipped with floats in tentative plans to start a family Labrador. She worked in North summer and skis in winter. Dr. and perhaps to move closer to West River, just inland from Liz Weld, a former schoolmate their parents. Mary, in particular, Goose Bay, and later in the coast- and close friend of Kernohan, missed the family farm in Parrs- al town of Nain, which is inhab- had conducted the coastal clinics boro and her horse, Horace. ited mostly by Inuit. She trav- before her. She died in a 1984 "For a long time after Mary's elled from there to hold clinics. plane crash. death, I had no plans", Beach Kernohan took a break from In late 1985 Kernohan decid- says. "I mean, all the plans I had Labrador for several months in ed to give up the coastal flights, just vanished. They had included 1983 and did a locum in Digby, and accepted a staff position at her." NS, before leaving on a tour that Goose Bay's Melville Hospital. He is thinking of leaving included a trek through the Hi- One of her patients, Doris Goose Bay in the next year or so. malaya Mountains in Nepal and Saunders, says her former doctor "The sparkle and joy of it, and all visits to Southeast Asia, Australia was "very gentle, very sympa- the things Mary and I used to and New Zealand. thetic and she took time to ex- do.... Maybe it's time to go She returned to Labrador in plain things to you. For me, it elsewhere."E CMAJ, VOL. 136, JUNE 1, 1987 1197