A scream shattered the afternoon stillness at the Loma Linda Sanitarium and Hospital. The injured young physician flew uncontrollably backward through the air, and his body crashed to the floor. Harold Shryock, MD, was almost electrocuted.
It seemed as though all of the events of his life had just passed through his consciousness. Harold’s life experiences had been a series of incredible twists and turns, false starts, unexplained illnesses, and delays. Seven years after entering medical school, he had finally become a physician. He had recently experienced the joys and fulfillment of becoming a loving husband and proud father. In anticipation of following in his father’s footsteps, he was preparing for an academic career. He thought his life was finally on track. Now he was lying on a sterile hospital floor, looking up into anxious faces, burned on his legs, and “devitalized.”
If the electrical shock had struck a fraction of a second earlier, Harold Shryock would have been killed instantly.
Harold M. Walton, MD, the hospital superintendent, came running to his side. At first, there was some confusion in deciding what to do. Hospital personnel helped the young Dr. Shryock to a treatment table in the next-door hydrotherapy department and did what they could to help him feel as comfortable as possible. There he rested for half an hour, contemplating his fate and thankful that he would be able to return that evening to his young family.
Thomas I. Zirkle, MD, had been treating a young girl with a broken arm. Zirkle had decided to use a fluoroscope to visualize the bone as he manipulated it into place. As a physician intern, Shryock had used the standard ether-drip method to administer anesthesia. The lights had been turned down in the fluoroscope room so that Zirkle could see the patient's broken bone. In the darkness, Harold had leaned forward so that he could better see the drops of ether as they fell on the anesthesia mask.
In so doing, his head accidentally touched the X-ray tube. Because his thighs were already in contact with the metal frame of the examination table, he completed an electrical circuit and instantaneously received a full jolt of high-voltage electricity. The potentially fatal current coursed through his body from his forehead to his thighs. Muscles throughout Shryock’s body contracted forcefully. The strong muscles of his back tightened and threw him backward, away from the X-ray machine. He involuntarily uttered the scream that was heard throughout the building.
Harold gradually regained his strength and vitality. When evening came a few hours later, he was strong enough to walk to his home on Prospect Street. There must have been some visible, telltale evidence of the ordeal, for when his wife, Daisy, greeted him that evening, she asked excitedly, "What happened to you?"
This terrifying and life-threatening experience in 1934 left physical scars where the high-voltage electrical current had burned Harold’s legs. The youthful Harold Shryock overcame social handicaps that easily could have derailed his entire life. After making courageous adjustments to life’s challenges, after tolerating unprecedented delays in beginning his medical career, and after deciding his own destiny, Harold not only blossomed into maturity, but he accepted enormous professional responsibilities.
Harold Shryock, MD worked for 41 years at the institution known today as Loma Linda University Health. He became a professor and chair of the Department of Anatomy and dean of the School of Medicine. He wrote 621 magazine articles and 13 books. A public speaker at church, school, and alumni meetings across the United States and Canada, as a physician he spoke to as many as 10,000 people at a time. He counseled hundreds of college students regarding scholastic, financial, and marital issues. And in a quest for the most qualified applicants, he overhauled the admissions procedures for what became Loma Linda University School of Medicine.
According to H. Roger Hadley, MD, current dean, Dr. Shryock set the standards for recruiting students. He established admissions policies by developing innovative ways of assessing premedical students, determining how letters of recommendation would be written and interpreted, and conducting on-campus interviews. He became the first dean to routinely visit the Seventh-day Adventist undergraduate campuses throughout the United States, something subsequent deans have done ever since. His refinements and untiring efforts to determine the best-qualified applicants opened doors of opportunity and service to hundreds of potential physicians.
Most importantly, Dr. Harold Shryock recognized and answered God’s callings. As a result, he made bold, creative, and unparalleled contributions to Loma Linda University, one of the greatest ventures of faith in the history of Christian outreach. In the minds of his students and colleagues, Harold Shryock became a giant among men.