Published in The Daily Journal print edition Jan. 26, 2013 This coming Thursday, Bishop McNamara will induct seven persons into the Dorothy and Romy Hammes Hall of Fame. As I familiarized myself with the names, memories came back to me about several honorees. Bill Salkeld, owner and operator of one of the finest sporting goods stores. Irish O’Reilly, great athlete and Rotarian. Roger Regnier, fire chief of Bradley for so many years. Kay Lindner, one of the hardest workers for the YMCA both locally and internationally as anyone. Mike McGuckin, beloved McNamara teacher for years. And finally Dr. James and Betsy Kennedy. I stopped there as this last pair brought back a flood of personal memories, especially for Jim Kennedy. When one ponders the field of available physicians in our community, it often is difficult to decide where to turn. Doctors did not always advertise. Hospitals are hesitant to name one professional over another. Consequently many of us have to rely on word of mouth, be it recommendations from friends or from a doctor who is not in that specialty. Such was the case when I first came back to Kankakee. I had heard the name James Kennedy and knew he was a general surgeon but not much else. Then the phone call came to me in my office. “Jamie (our oldest) has just cut his finger off! We are on our way to Riverside!" my wife said. As I rushed to meet my 11-year-old son, an older law partner stopped me and shared these words. “Remember, he is scared to death. Be careful how you greet him.” Wow, were those words exactly what I needed to hear. He had played with a forbidden power tool. I easily could have started the conversation a totally wrong way. And then there was Jim Kennedy in a room in the ER with my son. I stayed in as he sutured the finger, now shortened by ¾ of an inch. Terror was all I could see in my son’s eyes. He kept looking at his shortened index finger. Dr. Kennedy finished with the stitches, raised my son’s hand and asked him how it looked. Wide-eyed, my son could not respond. With that Dr. Kennedy said, “I can do better than that,” and began to stitch it anew. “Now that’s a lot better, right Jamie?” he asked. My son just blinked, relaxed and agreed by nodding. It was just the right approach to a traumatized child. Several years later I called him from Culkin’s Marina and told him a dog had just severely torn my daughter’s cheek. His response was, “I will meet you at Riverside. I know how far it is for you. Don’t beat me there!” Once again his hands were wonderful, but he always was a father as well. He beat me there. Sometimes in life, one has a chance to repay kindness. As all doctors in the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. Kennedy and his partner were sued for medical malpractice. The case involved a cancer death. The suit was based on a failure to diagnose and treat the condition. The doctors had detected the cancer and done surgery, but the cancer had returned a few months later. The claim was they should have retested the woman earlier and found the reoccurrence. The doctors and I had many discussions before trial, and I learned after someone has a cancerous breast removed, professional protocol at that time was to retest in a year. If the cancer immediately reappeared, there were few, if any, treatment options in those days. The reoccurrence had returned within a matter of a few months, and she died within the year. The doctors wouldn’t settle the case as neither doctor felt he had done anything wrong. Thus, there was a jury trial in front of now-retired judge Patrick Burns. A Chicago attorney represented the husband of the deceased. Every day of the trial, the seats behind Dr. Kennedy contained women who had been his breast cancer patients who had been treated and saved by him. The opposing counsel objected that they were sitting on Dr. Kennedy’s side of the “aisle.” Judge Burns responded, “This isn’t a wedding, counsel. Sit down.” A few days later, Dr. Kennedy’s parish priest came to the trial and again sat behind us. Counsel again objected, “Now he has a priest behind him!” When the judge explained this was a public trial, the lawyer responded, “Well, can you make him take off his collar?” Judge Burns usually was pretty cool in a trial, but he literally rose from the bench and ordered the other attorney to sit down and shut up! The jury was out for only an hour before returning the verdict in favor of the doctors. In the hallway, the daughter of the deceased woman who had testified eloquently how she missed her mother approached me. Her testimony had brought tears to all our eyes. In my closing, I mentioned I would be proud to have a daughter like her, but that sadness was not a basis to decide if there was any negligence by the doctors. She asked me to apologize to Dr. Kennedy for her. She said she had never felt either doctor had done anything wrong, but her father’s demons with losing his wife had caused him to bring the lawsuit, and she had to support her father. This week, Bishop McNamara will honor Dr. Kennedy. He will be selected to enter their Hall of Fame for his service not only to his profession but also to his community and to our educational institutions over the years. Well deserved. He’s one of the truly great ones. Only Parkinson’s disease stopped him from continuing to give his caring devotion to his profession and his patients. My grandfather would say, “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.” Amen. Dennis Marek may be reached at llamalaw@aol.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 03:30:53 +0000
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