Dr. Bill Turner retires scalpel after 35 years

Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Dr. Bill Turner. Submitted photo

Nevada Daily Mail

Spending nearly 35 years as a surgeon at Nevada Regional Medical Center, Bill Turner became an essential part of the hospital and established the hospital's wound clinic.

Turner, 71, retired to Emeritus status, effective April 15.

"I feel comfortable retiring, knowing who is here now," he said. "Joe Dodd and Sherwin Parungao do a bang up job in the operating room. I'd let them operate on me or my wife."

Turner said when he first came to the hospital in the '80s, he at times assisted other surgeons and at times did every kind of surgery himself.

"When I had surgery for many years by myself, I thought about retiring but then I'd leave the hospital with nothing," he said. "When I came here I was doing everything -- pacemakers, boob jobs, hysterectomies and c-sections. I was so glad when Scott Compton came so I didn't have to do bones. Bones is more like whittling; it's not the gentleness with tissues that I like."

Turner recalled with a laugh the days when he assisted with c-sections.

"I would try to name the babies," he said. "I didn't have anybody want to take me up on Gottlob even though he was a famous surgeon. One time we were finishing a c-section for a lady with twins. The father and mother are smiling. I said, 'Oh look here's another one!' Everyone looks like they're going to fall to the floor. I said, 'Just kidding!'"

Turner said his philosophy is to make surgery fun.

"Early on in my career, I realized that if I got angry, my hand would shake," he said. "That's not good. So I decided I'm not going to get angry anymore, instead I will make work fun. I love surgery. I like trauma, too. It's like a Christmas package, you open it up and see what you get. I enjoy the people, patients and families. I remember Marie McCullough was my nurse for 16 years; we cried with a lot of patients, and we did a lot of hugging."

Turner laughed as he remembered a little lady who would come every week from Christian Health Care for wound care.

"One day she came in, and we were very busy," he said. "I just took care of her and sent her back. She came back the next week, and the nurse told me she was pissed for three days. She wouldn't even talk. I went in there, gave her a big hug, and she was fine."

After earning his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma, Turner said he came to Nevada because his wife, Vicki, had family in the area and he likes small towns.

"I like a smaller town because you can be socially mobile," he said. "You go to a large city, and you get lost in the crowd. Here if you're interested in politics, you can do it. I've been a part of West Central Medical Society, a group of docs from surrounding counties who talk about common problems."

Turner said he became a doctor because biochemistry fascinated him.

"I first started out in research," he said. "I majored in zoology and chemistry. As I got deeper and deeper in research, I knew I was going to have to go to a large city. I really didn't like that. So I dovetailed into medicine. I had a year internship in internal medicine, and I said, 'I'm not curing anybody.' In surgery, at least, you've got a beginning and an end, a chance for a cure."

Over the years, he said he's seen major changes in the field.

"Laparoscopic stuff (minimally invasive surgery) has really gotten big," he said. "We used to do a lot of open procedures. Patients go home in less time with fewer complications."

Changes in technology, though, are part of the reason why he said he decided to retire.

"Obamacare and computers are why I retired," he said simply.

Turner said he plans to teach nursing students at Fort Scott Community College and Crowder.

"I get a kick out of showing them how to handle patients and examining X-rays and lab work," he said. "Though I told the schools, I can't work Fridays because we go to OU football."

He said he plans to visit New York City as well as Europe in the spring.

"We have OU football in the fall," he said with a smile. "We go to all the home games."

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