Heritage Snapshot: Part 107

School of Medicine Dean David B. Hinshaw, Sr., scheduled few faculty meetings during those first years. But he scheduled a major retreat in Santa Barbara over a weekend to recruit people who conceivably would work together. He invited them to be part of something wonderful and great. People met in small groups, laid some plans, and tried to work through issues. It got people to thinking about new curriculums. The Council on Medical Education returned in January 1967. Site visitors applauded the institution throughout. Hinshaw took them up on the hill again and said, “There it is. They are still putting in X-ray equipment and light fixtures, but we will be in there very shortly.” From the beginning, Hinshaw believed the consolidation of the School of Medicine in Loma Linda would eventually succeed, or he would not have attempted it. But from the 1967 site visit forward, Hinshaw knew it would work. He acknowledges that the institution was “sailing in choppy waters, but there was no risk of being swamped.” Because the new hospital had no patients, the accreditation team decided to send a small group back in three years. When they returned in 1970, patients jammed the new university hospital. In 1974, when Harrison S. Evans, MD, became dean, Dr. Hinshaw continued chairing the Department of Surgery. Although acknowledging times of conflict and turmoil, Dr. Hinshaw states that his greatest strength was his belief that the School of Medicine was an institution with a sacred purpose: “I believed the medical school was an institution of destiny in two ways: within the church specifically; and in a large sense within Christianity. The Christian orientation in medical schools has essentially departed from us in this world. Most of them all have gone. We’re it, and we were it during most of this period. What was left of a few of them evaporated along the trail and there is such a tight link in my mind between fundamental Christianity and fundamental Christian responsibility…that relates to health care and care of the sick, in a broad contest.” In 1970, Hinshaw recruited one of his medical school classmates, Melvin P., Judkins, MD, to become director of the Department of Radiation Medicine. Judkins, a radiologist, developed the Judkins Technique of Coronary Arteriography, a technique used by cardiologists around the world to create X-ray pictures of the blood vessels of the heart. With these X-rays the patient’s physician is able to see the exact location and extent of any disease. These pictures then make it possible for cardiologists and heart surgeons to select the preferred method of treatment, which brings relief of pain and extended life to many coronary arteriosclerosis victims. The results of Dr. Judkins’ research are considered internationally to be a major contribution to world medicine. In 1966 and 1967, during Dr. Hinshaw’s tenure as dean of the School of Medicine, the School of Health Related Professions [now the School of Allied Health Professions] and the School of Public Health were born. All of the curriculums started under the School of Medicine and with Dr. Hinshaw’s blessings were spun out as independent entities in order for them to grow. “And they’ve grown beautifully,” he reported. “…I believe all of that has a strong link to an expression of what Christ feels we should be doing…. That’s in the large context of Christianity, and, of course, specifically within the Adventist Church framework. I think the Adventist Church would be a far different structure if it didn’t have the health care facet to it. It would be denying a substantial piece of the gospel if we didn’t make these efforts, feeble though they may be, and weak and ineffective frequently, I admit that. We’re not entirely responsible for what we accomplish, but we are responsible for what we try. It’s like the physician Pare in the 16th century said, “I dress the wound, but God heals the wound.” And that’s what we should do. I believe this is what we were about. I believed it was destined to be this way, and I believed that it would succeed. Dr. Hinshaw believes that the main reason one should practice medicine is to follow a passion. “Medicine is a calling, as far as I’m concerned….” Meanwhile, during his 13-year tenure as dean, particularly in the late 1960s, Hinshaw had worked with various groups, including the veterans’ community itself, to lay a foundation for the building of a veteran’s hospital in Loma Linda. The concept was very appealing to the School of Medicine. Veterans’ hospitals through the previous two or three decades had become valuable in the teaching programs of medical schools across the country. To ensure a high level of patient care for veterans subsequent to World War II, veterans’ hospitals were built close to medical schools and affiliated with them. They had become a national resource for research and medical education. Such a facility would become a major asset to the teaching program of all the schools of the University, particularly the School of Medicine. According to Dr. Hinshaw, Congressman Jerry L. Pettis promoted the concept of building a VA hospital in Loma Linda very effectively. Various commissions and large public forums discussed and intensely debated the idea over a period of several years. Congressman Pettis maneuvered the project through Congress and the hospital was built about a half mile east of the Medical Center. A Deans Committee arranged details of the affiliation, which has proven to be a great strength to Loma Linda University. Following Congressman Pettis’ fatal plane crash, and before the new hospital was opened, the United States Congress named the new facility the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center. In October 1977, Dr. Hinshaw became Chief of Service at the Veterans Hospital, and after it opened in December 1977, performed the first surgery in the new facility about Christmastime. He led a flourishing surgery department there for the next five years.