Ten days into Dr. Charles Furr’s career in cardiology for what is now UPMC Hamot Heart & Vascular Institute, he did a heart catheterization on a patient in Bradford.
That was in 1976. Furr retired this week after more than 40 years at Hamot, including providing services as a specialist in Bradford a few times a month.
And that patient from 1976? “He asked me recently how long have we been together,” Furr explained to The Era.
He had to look up the answer in the old paper charts, and it’s 44 years.
“I think he’s now 88 or 89. He still is doing well. He still golfs,” the doctor said, talking about the man’s prowess on the golf course.
“That’s the big change I’ve seen in medicine. When I did my training in cardiology in the mid-70s, we didn’t see people with heart disease in their 70s. They didn’t last that long,” Furr explained.
“Thirty-five years ago, we didn’t do much for a heart attack. We didn’t know as much about fixing heart arteries,” Furr said. He compared it to an engine, saying back then, a heart attack would take out a few cylinders in the engine. Now, with advancements in knowledge and technology, it’s more like taking out a few horsepower.
“Now the next cardiac event isn’t five years later, it’s 15 or 20,” Furr said. People live longer, and the quality of life for the patients is so much better, too.
Furr grew up in Philadelphia, and said medical specialists tend to prefer cities to rural areas. He hadn’t planned on being a traveling doctor when he started his career, but after so many years, he has a lot of good memories — and a lot of favorite patients locally.
He and the other cardiologists in the practice would fly from Erie to Bradford.
“It was a little twin engine plane,” Furr recounted. “They would drop one of us off in Bradford, then the plane would go to St. Marys.
“The plane always had to make two approaches in St. Marys; the first was to see if there were elk on the runway,” he said with a laugh. “That was exciting.
“We did that for a number of years,” he said. “For awhile we drove ourselves, or we had a driver.”
With so many older patients, and the trip to Erie being nearly two hours one-way, Furr said the service of traveling specialists has been a blessing for smaller communities — and for him.
“The patients in Bradford were so nice,” he said, reminiscing. “They didn’t give you a bunch of questions. It was ‘whatever you say, doc.’
“My best friend is a retired cardiologist in California,” he explained. A lot of his patients are retired engineers, and spend a lot of time researching cardiology. “They drove him crazy,” Furr said.
Instead, Furr’s patients are one of the things he will miss the most.
“A lot of my favorite patients are elderly people from Bradford,” he said, growing pensive. “I can’t say why that is. I didn’t know anything about country life until I went to Bradford.
“I didn’t even see a cow until I went to college,” he added.
In his retirement, Furr and his wife are relocating to Florida. He’s planning a full life of golf, swimming, reading, taking some courses and caring for his wife, who has health problems.
Of his patients, Furr said, “I miss them all very much. I have my ‘hall of fame’ patient list, and many of my ‘hall of famers’ are from Bradford. I hope they know who they are.”
As for Hamot, hospital officials plan to provide another cardiologist to join the rotation of doctors who see patients in Bradford, and is ramping up telemedicine services.
