I first met Dr. Tom Willmeng in 1989 when Dr. Lloyd Appell was recruiting me to join his practice in Vicksburg. Doctor Tom lived in the area. His children attended Vicksburg schools. He had an orthopedic practice in Kalamazoo and also saw patients in Bronson Vicksburg Hospital. He was part of a group Dr. Appell had assembled to convince me Vicksburg would be a great place to live, raise a family and practice family medicine. He was right. I enjoyed 35 years of family practice in Vicksburg.
Over the years Doctor Tom and I interacted on many levels. Sometimes we met on the sidelines of a football game. Doc was always pleasant and never talked down to me like “I’m the specialist and you’re not.” At one scrimmage, the trainer of the opposing team came over and said, ”I’ve got a player who may be having an allergic reaction. Can you help?”
Doc immediately looked at me and said, “That’s you!” He’d take the orthopedic problems.
I sent him patients over the years as well. Louise, an elderly widow, had tripped and fallen over a garden hose in her driveway as she watered her flowers, breaking her wrist. She waited in the Vicksburg ER for Doc to drive out from Kalamazoo to see her. He arrived, got the bones properly aligned and applied a cast. Most orthopedists would be done at that point. Doc, however, discovered Louise’s friend had left so she had no ride home. Without hesitation, Doc offered her a ride and took her home, much to Louise’s delight.
Another homebound patient of our practice had a severe shoulder problem that greatly affected the use of her arm. Doc saw her but there were no good treatment options. Surgery to attempt to fix it would be too risky because of her frailty. Doc could have stopped at that point and said, “I don’t have anything to offer.” Instead, he visited her regularly as a Eucharistic Minister of St Martin of Tours Catholic Church. Those visits were a balm that she greatly appreciated.
I was Doc’s family physician as well. One visit I was concerned that his heartbeat was irregular, so I had my nurse, Pam, do an EKG. Pam got all the leads hooked up, told him to hold still and turned on the machine. Doc instantly jerked like he had been electrocuted, much to Pam’s horror. His smirk tipped her off that he was just messing with her. He was fortunate that she did not find a reason to give him a shot or administer an enema. They laughed about this incident at almost every visit after that.
Doc spent countless hours helping athletes. One afternoon he knocked on the back door of my office with two Vicksburg wrestlers in tow. He had been at the high school and the coach had Doc look at rashes the wrestlers had. These had to be evaluated and forms completed so they could wrestle the next day. They couldn’t compete if the rash was contagious. Doc didn’t know anything about rashes but he knew how solve the problem. He drove them over and knocked on my door. The appropriate things were done and they did compete. Doc and I chuckled about that many times since then.
Doc made a huge improvement in concussion care for athletes. Because of Doc’s advocacy, Vicksburg High School was the first high school in the state to implement “impact” testing, making return to play decisions much safer and more accurate. At the beginning of the year athletes took a computerized test which assessed reaction time, memory and cognitive agility. This was their baseline. If the athlete suffered a concussion they would be retested and would not return to play until they got back to baseline. Previously return to play relied on an athlete’s report of symptoms and an arbitrary minimum rest period. This new protocol greatly reduced the risk of a second potentially severe brain injury.
Doc did a lot for our community. He cared more about people than money. He did whatever he could to help even if it meant being an Uber driver for a patient. He did all this with a wry smile and a ready laugh. He was a consultant, a colleague, a patient and a friend.
Our community will miss him. I will miss him too.
