Dr. Morris Gibson
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I Profile Dr. Morris Gibson David Wishart M y instructions from and A Doctor's Calling, and put a way, however, he stepped into Dr. Morris Gibson human face on medicine better the chamber pot, arched back- were clear: Take the than anyone since Richard Gor- wards, threw his arms in the air, ferry from Horse- don. and landed across the patient, shoe Bay to Nanaimo on Vancou- "Ach, the bliddy door'" said Jeannie, whose child rocketed ver Island, drive north to Cour- a large and cheerful lady advanc- into the world in a fashion that tenay, find the Westerly Hotel, ing upon me and effortlessly would have driven Leboyer to and phone. hoisting me to my feet, wrote drink. "I'll be there in 10 minutes", Gibson in One Man's Medicine. But all was well, and as they he said when I called. "In the "It's aye affits hinges." left Mrs. Brogan said to Tommy: meantime go and have a cup of Gibson and his partner were "Jeannie's real pleased wi' yer tea in the restaurant. By the way, final-year medical students at attention. Besides, she hasna'had I'll be wearing a blazer and Glasgow University then. It was a man jump at her like that in slacks. And, oh, I'm a little fel- a critical time - Hitler was about years!" low." to invade Poland and Gibson and Morris Gibson arrived at the A little fellow? Can this be Tommy were going to do their Westerly with a warm handshake the same Morris Gibson who put first home delivery. Or so they and twinkling blue eyes. Follow his shoulder to the door of a thought. me, he said, and his new Buick house in Glasgow, rendering the "Noo', said Mrs. Brogan, shot up the Island Highway, then door, and himself, horizontal? shooing away the doctors and turned into a quieter world of It was the start of the saga of flagging over Mrs. McKenzie, "if cedar fences and market gardens Swan Lane, one of the comic you two fellas '11 just stand ower before he swung onto Seabank tales in his first book, One Man's there oot o' the road we'll show Road. My little car, breathing Medicine. He has since written you whit this is a' aboot. " heavily from the pursuit, slid in two others, A Doctor in the West Undeterred, 'Tommy donned behind his. a sterile gown and gloves and "Welcome to Seal Bay", he David Wishart is a freelance writer living then, alerted by Gibson's cry, he said, ushering me into the house. in Vancouver. dashed to his station. On the There, standing on a tartan car- pet, was Janet Gibson. Having done my homework, I felt I knew her; certainly I knew the story of how the two doctors and their young daughter had emigrated to Canada in 1955, preferring the wide open spaces of Alberta to the bureaucracy of Britain's Na- tional Health Service. They spent 16 years in the little town of Okotoks before moving to Calgary, where Gib- son became the first professor in the University of Calgary's De- partment of Family Practice. They're both 71 now, and retired to Seal Bay 9 years ago. Janet showed me the view over Georgia Strait to mainland British Columbia. It was a lovely day. She sighed that a recent invasion of sea lions was "We,wanted gob- Morris and Janet Gibson: "We wanted time for our patients." bling up the salmon. CMAJ, VOL. 136, JUNE 15, 1987 Gibson's books tell how they shed his jacket and was sprawled have also given Gibson time to met as medical students at Glas- on the floor, recalls that Calvert paint, and one of his efforts is on gow. Over tea, Janet recalled the was a patient whose pneumonia the cover of this issue of CMAJ. time Gibson said he was going to he had missed. "When Calvert He showed me his studio above write a book one day. "That's later asked for penicillin and I the garage. On one wall there's a funny", said Janet, "I have an- demurred, he spat in the sink. It photograph of the Glasgow Uni- other friend who wants to be a was rust red. He got his penicil- versity boxing team, and oppo- writer." lin." site, there's .a cartoon showing a The friend was a veterinary Gibson went on to use hyp- man in a studio and his wife student named James Herriot. nosis in hundreds of deliveries saying to a friend: "He used to Strangely enough, the Gib- and became an authority, lectur- paint there on weekends. Now sons and the Herriots ended up he only uses it to sulk." in Yorkshire, and they have re- Gibson has taken his blows. mained good friends to this day. He lost his only daughter, a .But Hull, England, was not promising lawyer of 26, in a To- for the Gibsons. "We were seeing ronto car accident. Last year Janet 70 to 80 patients a day", recalls was seriously ill in St. Paul's Janet. "In the evenings we would Hospital in Vancouver. "I raise a glass of sherry and won- thought I had lost her", he said, der what we had missed." and the fond look they ex- Life in a small Alberta town changed showed a love affair was shockingly different to a going back 50 years. man who had known the beauty Life to Gibson has been an of Scotland's misty hills and adventure. He says Okotoks has Yorkshire's' dales. They left a been the most fulfilling part, but thriving city with a medical club he's proud of his honorary LLD for a main street that didn't have from the University of Calgary, a medical office. and at the house on Seal Bay he's But an old schoolhouse be- got what he calls his "show-off came their clinic and the people shelf" - copies of his books in of the scattered community their different languages. patients and friends. And he be- James Herriot said Gibson's came known as a good doctor ing at universities in Canada, the first book was warm, funny and who turned out in all weathers. United States and New Zealand touching, and after a few hours at When the National Film Board and writing a paper on hypnosis Seal Bay I'd say that is an apt wanted to make a film about a for CMAJ (1960; 82: 1281-1283). description of the man himself. country doctor, they went to Gib- He spent 2 months in New Zea- I left with an autographed son. The film contains a memora- land in 1977 after the University copy of One Man's Medicine, ble episode in which neighbours of Otago selected his family prac- and reading it on the ferry on the lit up their homes like beacons to tice program as a model; that way back to Vancouver, I guide Gibson through a dark, same year he was elected a fel- laughed so much that I would snow-swept night to a child with low of the College of Family not have noticed if men in white pneumonia. As he drove home, Physicians of Canada. coats had slipped me into a strait- the house lights flickered out be- Then it was time to retire to jacket. hind his car. Seal Bay, where Gibson dug out Another of his best stories is "I suppose, looking back, a manuscript he had put together about the time he and Tommy that we had an overdeveloped 10 years earlier. One publisher had to attend a delivery at a conscientiousness", said Janet. had rejected it then, but the next Glasgow tenement. Gibson was "We wanted to have time for our time around an editor at Collins not entirely sober but he had patients and we wanted hospital Publishers liked the flow of Gib- thought he was off duty. So two access." son's longhand. things were on his mind - to "Okotoks was lean to start", One Man's Medicine, pub- deal with what turned out to be a Gibson continued, "but even lished in 1981, and A Doctor in difficult case, and to conceal his when it got busy later we never the West, which came out 2 years condition from the household. felt we couldn't cope." later, have both sold 20 000 cop- All went well, so well that Okotoks gave them time to ies in North America, become when Gibson called again a bot- think. Gibson developed the art best sellers in Canada and been tle of whisky was on the table. of hypnosis, which he had translated into 17 languages. An- "We'll just hae a wee celebra- learned backstage at the Variety other book, A Doctor's Calling tion", said the father. Then, Theatre in Hull from John Cal- (titled A Doctor at Large in the nudging Gibson in the side with vert - "America's master of mys- United States) has just been pub- his elbow, he added: "And we all tery". lished and is also selling well. know ye like a dram tae yer- Gibson, who by now had Canada, and retirement, sel!"A 1308 CMAJ, VOL. 136, JUNE 15, 1987 For prescribing information see page 1314 -.