The Good Doctor Corpron

Remarkable times -- the day an elephant fell into the water tank; the man almost eaten by a sun bear; the curries, phad thai and fish.

Wonderful memories -- the people who hiked through the jungle to thank him; the boy, in a body cast for six months with spinal tuberculosis, who grew up healthy and happy; the hikes up mountains covered with orchids.

But sad stories, too -- people with malignant cancers who couldn't be saved, the refugees no one wanted, the youngsters who didn't survive childhood.

Last month, Dr. Douglas O. Corpron, a Yakima family practice physician, traveled back through 50 years of experiences, visiting the little hospital he helped build in a remote part of western Thailand in 1960.

Seeing the hospital still thriving in what was once an isolated jungle added a celebratory coda to the visit.

It's something not too many people experience, he knows.

"To get a chance to start a little hospital in the middle of nowhere doesn't happen so much anymore," says Corpron.

Now 81 and retired after decades of professional and community service in Yakima, his work in Thailand was just one hallmark in a lifetime of serving others.

It was 1958 when Corpron was recruited as a medical missionary by the organization now known as Global Mission and living in the exotic reaches of Asia presented the chance of a lifetime. A graduate of the University of Washington School of Medicine, Corpron was finishing training and the time seemed right.

The son of missionaries, he had lived in China until he was 12, spoke fluent Mandarin and loved Asia. So he and his wife, Helen, packed up their three children and headed to Bangkok, where they studied the Thai language before setting out for Sangklaburi, about 12 miles from the Burma border in Kanchanaburi province.

They traveled by train over rickety tracks, then in a "hang yaw" (a long-tailed boat), on the three-day journey to Sangklaburi, a trip that takes six hours now. The town is a mile from the Bridge over the River Kwai, made famous in a movie by the same name.

In the initial days, as the Corprons oversaw the building of a hospital and a home for his growing family -- they would have four more children while in Thailand -- the villagers looked upon this new, young man somewhat suspiciously.

"People there had never had a weird foreign doctor around before," Corpron recalls.

In 1960 the hospital opened with 10 beds, two surgical areas, a laboratory and X-ray equipment. A school was erected nearby.

Thai patients began streaming in for treatment as did refugees from other countries.

From the beginning, a strong emphasis was placed on reaching these refugees, particularly the Karen, a largely Christian group who crossed into Thailand because of persecution in Burma. In fact, the hospital was purposely located close to the border because of the mistreatment they suffered.

Unfortunately, their fate hasn't changed in 50 years, Corpron says. "There are 150,000 identified refugees along the border, mostly Karen, and there could be as many as 2 to 3 million. They are abused and misused; it's just a nightmare."

Practicing medicine deep in the jungle presented a myriad of challenges. Communication was tricky because the different groups spoke their own languages. Getting enough medicines and other supplies up the River Kwai to the hospital was never easy.

Malaria was endemic, with malnutrition, hook worm, anemia, dengue fever and tuberculosis also common. And there were no specialists waiting in the wings.

"You just did what had to be done," he says.

The closest way to send a message to the outside world was a telegraph station across the river.

But it worked. It summoned life-saving help when a patient arrived horribly injured after a tangle with a sun bear. The man's face was mangled -- the bear actually had his head in its mouth at one point -- he was losing blood and his jaw was broken. A runner was dispatched to the telegraph station, which alerted a helicopter to fly the man to a larger hospital.

That incident was one of the more dramatic in Corpron's tenure in Thailand, although the day the elephant fell into the hospital's water tank may have been a close second. The holding tank was apparently irresistible on a particularly sultry day.

A rescue involving lumber and ropes managed to save the day and the elephant.

Nor was that Corpron's only medical encounter with the big mammals. Because elephants are important family assets, when one got sick, it made sense to take it to the hospital.

"I drew the line at treating elephants," Corpron laughs, "although I did sell penicillin to people to treat an elephant with an abscess."

If Corpron was constantly busy, so was Helen. She kept the financial records, sewed emergency room curtains and hospital bed sheets, taught math in the nearby school, helped adults learn English and provided public health education for local families.

Sadly, Helen died a year ago, before plans were made for the 50th anniversary visit to Thailand.

After nine years, the Corprons returned to Yakima in 1967. When Corpron's parents left China in 1941, Yakima had become home. The elder Corpron, also named Douglas, was a family practice physician here, just as his father, William, had been in the early part of the 20th century.

"I'm really pleased to be a third generation family doctor in Yakima," Corpron says.

The younger Douglas Corpron became a highly respected physician and community member, according to the Rev. David Helseth of Englewood Christian Church, which Corpron attends.

"Doug has cared for many, many families and has given wise counsel to many. When he speaks, people listen."

When Yakima began suffering a shortage of primary care doctors, Corpron, along with Dr. Stan Coffin, who practiced together for more than a decade, spearheaded the first family practice residency here in 1975.

The idea was to train physicians here, with hopes they would stay.

"I take a lot of pleasure with the doctors who did their residency here and stayed," he says.

Dr. Mike Maples, who heads the Central Washington Family Health Residency Program, a later version of the program Corpron started, described Corpron as an inspiring mentor.

"Doug is the reason Marje (Henderson, also a physician and Maples' wife) and I came here. He's an extremely warm individual with a deep, abiding interest in people, and people feel that."

Maples says that just in terms of the numbers of physicians Corpron trained, he has had a immense impact on Yakima.

"He's tremendously positive and believes all things are possible."

He's the founding chair of Community Health of Central Washington, served several years on Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington's board and was named Washington State Family Physician of the Year in 1997.

"It's been a real gift to have him as a father," says daughter Pamela Corpron Parker of Spokane. "He's been a role model to our family for what it means to be committed to a community. For him, his practice wasn't just work, it was a calling."

In addition to his seven children, he has 17 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

After retiring 10 years ago, Corpron had more time to devote to orchid growing, bicycling, rock hunting, hiking and snowshoeing. He's also training to become a Master Gardener and is a Rotarian.

"He's a Renaissance Man," says longtime colleague Dr. Coffin.

Faith has always been central to Corpron's character, says Maples. "His faith was a very important aspect of why he went to Thailand, but he never pushes his world view."

Returning to Thailand and seeing the hospital work continue 50 years later was a privilege, Corpron says.

His began the 40-day trip surrounded by young people, joining Parker, an English professor at Whitworth University in Spokane, who was leading a group of 11 students to Thailand.

It was refreshing to be reacquainted with the country through the eyes of a young, curious group, says Corpron, who proved a valuable ally when nearly every traveler came down with some kind of digestive illness.

In the latter part of the trip, Corpron's son, Dan, and Dan's wife, Julie, and Corpron's two nephews joined him and Parker for the hospital celebration.

They found a number of changes: The 10-bed hospital had expanded to 25, the staff had gone from 10 to 40 and child survival rates had dramatically improved. In 1960, only about half of the children lived to adulthood; now it's 70 percent, Corpron says.

Corpron also continues to worry about the Karen, who are being persecuted, he says.

Daughter Parker concurs. "The situation on the borders has always been difficult for the indigenous population, but the oppression reached critical mass about 25 years ago when the military in Burma started forcing people with violence across the border."

Corpron adds, "It's ethnic cleansing. Tens of thousands of people have died there, and no one knows about it.

"It's a quiet story that no one is talking about."

The Corpron troupe joined more than 500 people at the hospital's anniversary celebration. Festivities began with a church service where Corpron addressed the gathering in Thai. Government dignitaries, villagers and patients through the years, some Corpron had treated 50 years earlier, attended.

"Part of what made it special were there were so many people who remembered those days," Corpron says. "One former patient traveled from Laos to come to say thank you."

The festivities were elaborate and wonderful, Corpron says, but there was also a bittersweet aspect -- the hospital sorely needs a permanent physician and hasn't been able to recruit one.

Because of that, Corpron is considering traveling back later this year to fill in at the hospital for a month .

"The need isn't going away," he says simply.

The Good Doctors Corpron -- three generations in Yakima

It's a first for a third.

"I'm the only third generation Yakima family physician I know of," says Douglas O. Corpron.

As the third Corpron doctor here, he has had a mighty legacy to uphold.

His grandfather, William, operated a medical practice out of the home he and wife, Anna, shared, where The Lofts condos now stand on Third Street.

William was "a horse and buggy doctor, who visited his patients in their homes," says Corpron.

"There are still two ladies at my church who were delivered by my grandpa," Corpron reports.

William died young, succumbing in 1925 during the second wave of the great flu epidemic that began worldwide in 1918.

His son, Douglas S. Corpron, carried on his father's tradition in Yakima after first serving as a medical missionary in China and the Philippines in the 1930s and '40s with his wife, Grace.

Although living in Asia was a vista-expanding experience, it was also heartbreaking. Douglas and Grace's first two children died in the Philippines during a cholera epidemic.

Back in Yakima, Douglas was an avid hiker and spent every fall climbing peaks all over Washington with his close friend, William O. Douglas, the former Supreme Court justice.

Douglas S. Corpron died in 1976.

When the youngest Corpron set out his shingle, his practice included people who had been patients of his grandfather's and father's.

"That long continuity of friendships has meant a lot to me," says Corpron.