Dr. Burkart made the world a better place
By Joe McAdory
Published: June 29, 2008
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.
