Dr. Burkart made the world a better place

By Joe McAdory

I am fortunate I got to know Dr. Ozzie Burkart, a man who submitted letters and poems to this newspaper, and delivered a ton of babies into this world. Dr. Burkart was a man of conviction and a man who treated everyone as a special person.

Ozzie died the other day. He had a booming voice. I am sad that I will never get to hear that voice again.

Below is a story I wrote about Ozzie back in 2004.

Ozzie Burkart, M.D., spent much of his career bringing new lives into the world and helped create vaccines to keep others from leaving it too soon.

The retired doctor, a general practitioner, said he’s delivered far more than a thousand babies in 50 years of work and cherishes every one.

“I have a box full of photos of my little patients,“ said Burkart, 85. “When I walked the halls of the hospitals, I made it a point to go back and see each baby I delivered. There’s something about a newborn baby, a feeling you can’t explain. It’s a new life, not interfered with.“

Burkart enjoys talking about newborns, the medical field and issues we face in society each day. Perhaps that’s why he’s so inclined to voice his opinion in the newspaper so often.

“I have my index of indignation,“ he said. “It’s my reaction to events of the day ... if they arise my indignation, then I’ll sit down and write a letter. Sometimes I write and just throw the letter in the wastebasket. I wanted to write just to get it off my chest. Some things come along and you just can’t swallow them anymore.

“Writing is difficult if you want to do it right. People say, ‘I understand your letter but you used too many big words.‘ Then I’ll say, ‘Well, there’s a dictionary.‘ “

Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Burkart studied at Loyola-Chicago before serving as a general practitioner in the Midwest for 15 years. He moved to Auburn in 1972, where he went to work at the university’s student health center. He opened his own practice in Auburn in 1977.

Burkart began work in 1985 with plasmapheresis at labs in Phenix City and Montgomery, where he produced vaccines. Today’s vaccine shortage, particularly the flu shot, troubles the veteran doctor.

“That’s inexcusable,“ he said. “When I was in practice, you could get a flu shot for three or four dollars.

“The Republicans made the biggest change in medicine since 1965. Instead of adhering to the traditional conservative line, the Republicans have outdone the Democrats to bring about socialized medicine. We are under a system where all of the funds used for medicine are taken from public funds.“

Burkart said he did not vote for either Sen. John Kerry or President Bush Tuesday “on principle.“

“They ought to have a law or a rule saying that campaigns should last only six to 12 weeks,“ he said. “That’s long enough. Kerry spent about $280 million and Bush spent about $240 million or whatever. It was an exorbitant amount.“

Burkart considers today’s advances in the medical world ‘wonderful,‘ but wonders if the traditional doctor-patient relationship has gotten lost along the way and if some doctors rely too much on machines in the modern age.

“It’s gone toward technology,“ he said. “There are doctors who don’t know how to listen to a heart. What we did was low-tech medicine. We didn’t have all of those fabulous machines.

“People may be brilliant, but we can’t miss the human reward.

“When you go see a doctor, who takes your blood pressure and checks your temperature? A nurse. What about the doctor? How is he going to know anything about you if he himself doesn’t take the vital signs.

“Do you have a nice, warm feeling when you think of your doctor? There’s no real attempt to create rapport. Of course, the government loves this.“

Burkart, who once saved a Thanksgiving dinner guest from choking to death with his version of the Heimlich maneuver, lives in Auburn with his wife, Helene.

What kind of snake is this?

By Joe McAdory

Opelika-Auburn News staffers followed a four-foot snake outside our facility Wednesday afternoon, some in fear, and others in curiosity. It shouldn’t be unusual to see a snake outside our building. After all, we have chipmunks, squirrels and an assortment of birds. Seems like a perfect environment for a hungry serpent.

What we couldn’t figure out was, just what kind of snake was it? The first guess was timber rattlesnake. It had the right colors and markings, but the snake had no rattle and its head didn’t have that trademark shape that poisonous snakes possess. Another person guessed it might be a king snake. Well that made sense. It was big enough and appeared to either be digesting something or about to give birth.

Someone else said it was a diamondback water snake, non-poisonous, of course. The last guess was rat snake. Nobody said chicken snake, so I’ll throw that one out there.

What do you think?

Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

By Joe McAdory

Ran across a few humorous points to ponder the other day and thought I’d share them with you:

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting dead?

Why do banks charge a fee on ‘insufficient funds’ when they know there is not enough money?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why doesn’t Tarzan have a beard?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?
Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that’s falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?
How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

And the hokey joke of the week: What do you call a cow that’s sleeping?

A bull-dozer.

Told you it was hokey.

Tee time for area kids

By Joe McAdory

It’s fun to see kids take up a hobby, work at their skills and improve as they go along. Such was the case this week at the Plains Junior Golf summer program at Moores Mill in Auburn. Boys and girls were schooled on the basics of the game and received personalized instruction in a positive, upbeat environment that also helped develop character and respect for others.

If your child is interested in improving his or her golf skills, I highly recommend you contact golf instructor Will Blackmon, who heads the PJG program. He can be reached at 821-6533, which is the number for the school’s golf house—a well-crafted building adjacent to the driving range at Moores Mill that also houses an indoor range and putting green.

Plains Junior Golf is holding a second summer camp next month, so be sure to call Will to apply.

But as this area continues to blossom into one of the nation’s premier golf hotspots, golf academies for children will continue to grow. The City of Auburn’s recreation department is sponsoring its own golf academy, KIDS Fore Golf, which is held for much of the summer at the Auburn University Club for kids ages 6-16. For information, contact Jimmy Green at 319-7867 or Steve Dickerson at 501-2930.

The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, including Grand National, has long had a popular youth program. Visit the Trail’s Web site at http://www.rtjgolf.com for more information on these.

Not only can children develop their skills through these schools, and develop socially, but they can also progress competitively through a number of fantastic tours. The Southeastern Junior Golf Tour calls Auburn its home and can be a springboard to some of the best golf outings in the nation. U.S. Kids Golf also has a tour of courses specific to the Auburn-Opelika area for kids of all ages.

This area has been considered by Golf Digest as the No. 1 municipality for golf. Considering the opportunities our youth have to improve their skills and learn a fun game, golf will only continue to flourish right here.

Sex offender wins lottery? That figures

By Joe McAdory

I don’t know what to make of this story. As much as I play the lottery, and come away a dollar short each time, it makes me sick to hear about somebody winning like this. Here’s the text from the Associated Press story:

LANSING, Mich. — The winner of last week’s $57 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot is a registered sex offender who also pleaded guilty to two breaking and entering charges in the 1980s.

Fred Topous Jr., 45, was discharged from Michigan Department of Corrections supervision in October 2006.

The Kent City man traveled to Lansing on Tuesday to claim the prize from Friday’s drawing in the multistate game. Topous chose to take the prize as a $34 million lump sum payment, before taxes.

Topous said he planned to buy a house, send his children to college and have some fun with his winnings. He said he and his wife work multiple jobs to make ends meet and thought they’d have to work till they died.

“I want to enjoy a little bit of life,“ Topous told state lottery officials. “We’re plain folks. We’ve struggled all our lives.“