Two local doctors have decided to hang up their stethoscopes after a combined 60 years of West Coast medicine.
John O’Brien and Pamela Frazee, a doctor couple who have lived, worked and raised three children since arriving to the area in 1990 and 1986 respectively, have retired, though they’ve assured they will not be leaving the Coast, nor will they be leaving medicine completely as both are signed on to fill in when needed.
“Doctors need their time off for education and holidays, so I’m sure there’s going to be lots of work but we’re also going to hopefully have more time for hobbies and travel,” Frazee said.
She said the decision to retire was made easier when another doctor couple, Celina Horn and Lincoln Foerster, expressed interest in coming to the Coast to practice.
“The wonderful thing is that I feel that our practices are being handed over to two very competent, compassionate, intelligent, skillful physicians that are great additions to the community and will provide really good medical care for my beloved patients,” she said.
Frazee has been treating patients since arriving on the West Coast on a, supposed, temporary basis in 1986, as part of a rotating internship with Victoria General Hospital.
She arrived already aware of the West Coast’s blissful surroundings as she had visited the area about four times prior, the most memorable of which came when she was released from the hospital after breaking her back in a skiing accident and becoming a paraplegic at 16.
“I was in the hospital in Vancouver for about three or four months and my first outing out of the hospital was in the Easter time and my family took me and my siblings to the old Wickaninnish Inn for a weekend,” she said. “I have this memory of sitting on the deck and watching the waves for hours. Just watching them come in and feeling the beauty of the natural environment.”
When she returned as a young doctor to practice medicine as a summer locum, she rediscovered the beauty she’d fallen in love with as well as a fascinating and busy career.
“Ending my practice has really thrown into perspective how wonderful it has been because you get to see people through their whole life,” she said adding doctors form unique bonds with their patients.
“You’re involved in people’s deepest issues and biggest challenges,” she said. “It is very satisfying and challenging and I just appreciate my patients so much and I will miss them a lot…My husband and I both love medicine. It’s like a detective job, it challenges you intellectually and emotionally and in every way.”
The West Coast was in need of doctors at the time and Frazee was encouraged by her colleagues to continue on past the summer.
“I had never envisioned myself being an ongoing rural physician. I just thought it would be a thing to start off my career but the more I was here, the more I loved it,” she said. “At first, when you’re from the city, you think it’s going to be boring; that there’s going to be nothing to do. Of course, that’s not the case, but it takes a little while living here to find that out.”
Her place on the peninsula was cemented when another doctor arrived in 1990.
John O’Brien was travelling on a plane to Vancouver after spending a year practicing medicine in New Zealand and, fortuitously, was sitting next to the sister of a West Coast doctor who told him the West Coast was looking for locums.
“He got off the airplane in Vancouver Airport to switch planes and phoned up Dr. Brian Killins and set up the locum,” Frazee said. “That’s how John O’Brien ended up coming to do a locum here.”
Excited about a potential new doctor to help cover the Coast, Frazee suggested to the other doctors that they take O’Brien out for a beer and welcome him to the community.
“That was when I first met John,” she said. “I remember, when I first laid eyes on him, there was some little feeling. It was really funny that that should be.”
The couple married in 1993.
O’Brien said working in the local rural medicine scene was “spectacular” and dull moments never popped up between his work at the local clinic and hospital.
“The work is really challenging and very interesting,” he said. “And, of course, living on the West Coast is a spectacular thing anyway, just because of the scenery and the lifestyle.”
He said he looks forward to having more time to travel now that he’s retired, but added leaving the West Coast for good never crossed his mind.
“We love where we live. There’s just so many things about it,” he said adding the couple enjoys spending time in the water with their three adult children who all grew up in Tofino and Ucluelet.
“We love being out in the water. Our number one family activity that we do together with the kids is going out in the boat and being able to go out to a remote beach.”
He said he has zero regrets about his decision to settle down on the Coast and is grateful for the community that welcomed him with open arms.
“I’ve always felt welcome here, and appreciated,” he said. “I just love the community and I would like to send out my thanks to the West Coast.”
Frazee added the West Coast is in good hands with its current medical team.
“We have such a great group of physicians. It’s been wonderful to work with them. And, our hospital also has an amazing nursing team,” she said adding the local paramedics have also been “wonderful” to work with.
“They are on call a lot. They do amazing work. They have to deal with really difficult situations at times,” she said. “I really need to acknowledge what a pleasure it has been working with the paramedics of our area.”