M.D.s and D.O.s in Early California

Dr. Donald Dilworth, DO, interviewed by Dr. Michael Seffinger, DO

at his home in Escondido, California
August 22, 2005

Dr. Seffinger: We are at the home of Dr. Donald Dilworth in Escondido. Dr. Dilworth, would you like to introduce yourself and talk about how you got involved with the profession.
Dr. Dilworth: I am a native son of California and I was born in Hemet. In the town there was a local osteopathic doctor. We became well acquainted as a family and in the church that we attended. Through his introduction, I became aware of what the profession was doing; so that when I went off to college, I was ready to take a premedical course. While at Chaffey College I also was able to become acquainted with two well-known osteopathic men there; they encouraged me to go ahead and try to make arrangements to go to the California College. At the time, it was right at the beginning of WWII when everybody was being drafted, it was generally considered that all of us students would be drafted into the service, but due to the good service that we had from our president, Franklin Roosevelt (he had issued a letter to the effect that we would be exempt from the draft as long as we would go to the college and maintain our accredited position), so I had the privilege of having my education at the College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons in California all during the war - after which I went to Long Beach and interned at the Magnolia Hospital. After interning in 1945, I went back to New Jersey for some mission training, because our family had always been interested in various missions; my older brother had gone to Africa; my twin brother went to China; and so I was thinking about going to the Philippines or to South American and as a result I went to Princeton Theological Seminary in order to be a little better informed in terms of the theological background. We were then accepted into the mission field in Ecuador where we were appointed to have an opportunity for providing medical service to the Quichua Indians. They are the famous heirs of the Incas who number some five million in the country of Ecuador and even more in Peru. We were there for approximately eighteen years and had a very successful time establishing three clinics and then a small hospital. We were able to put up a radio station in connection with the hospital by which we would send out the fixed tuned receivers with the patients when they would go home so we would have contact with them every evening when they would come in from their fields in order to prepare their evening meal. We were very thankful for all the opportunities that we had in getting acquainted with the Quichuas. We were pleased also to find those who were to become the leaders of their community. After that, we returned to California, where I had to start the process of putting four children through college - so I went back to work with a general practice here in Escondido. In the process of setting up this practice I had the opportunity of working with the National Organization of the American Osteopathic Association; we were at that time establishing a Christian Osteopathic Fellowship of those who would be interested in some of the various mission fields. Out of that Christian Osteopathic group we were then able to join later with the National Medical organization, now known as the Association of Medical, Dental, Doctors and all of the opportunities that it gives. But it was at this time that we began to think about the establishment of the Osteopathic College in California which had been rather disturbed when it was taken over by the College of Medicine at Irvine - so I was part of the Board of Directors that was set-up in order to establish again an osteopathic college in California. Now, did you have any questions you want to ask first?
Dr. Seffinger: Well, I think, one of the things that is of interest is when you first got into the profession -1939 or there about - before the war, what did it look like to you?
Dr. Dilworth: The question is "Where was I in my first contacts with the profession just at the time of making application to the college in 1939 and '40." The Second World War was well established; all of the students were being drafted; and it was my opportunity to receive from President Roosevelt the letter that exempted us from the draft, if we would be faithful to the osteopathic profession, which meant - going to the school and passing all of the classes. And so, that was very successful in giving me the opportunity of becoming a D.O. When I went to intern in Long Beach, we finally celebrated the big VE day and the war was over.
Dr. Seffinger: Did the profession look like it had a lot going for it at the time? Did you feel like you were getting into a good profession? What was your impression of this osteopathic profession that you got into?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes, the question is, "what is the status of the profession in those early years" and fortunately at that beginning there were the rumors that some of the doctors wanted to have the same privileges with all of the MDs; so they wanted to see about the opportunity about becoming MDs. There was a slight movement on foot to see if they could get recognition to cross over to the medical profession directly. Most of it was just talk in those early years and some of it was because ‘none of the osteopathic doctors were being accepted into any of the armed services' and they would have liked to have had that privilege, but since it wasn't granted to them, it led to an attempt to try to find how to get equal recognition for the two different professions. So, we simply went through the struggles of those years of maintaining our practice rights and trying to keep them on as close a level as we could with all of the allopathic profession, It wasn't until around 1958 or '59 when the culmination of those ten years of struggle was able to show us that there was a strong move in California to try to amalgamate the two professions. Then came the opportunity of which the California College of Medicine at Irvine had agreed to issue an MD degree to any of the graduates of the original College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons just for paying a small fee of $65.00 and so that was the amalgamation of the profession as far as the introduction to California went.
Dr. Seffinger: Were you aware of any such movements before the war or during the war or immediately after the war to amalgamate the two professions for offering MD degrees to DOs?
Dr. Dilworth: ‘To be aware of any possibility of what that sort of potential for putting the profession together', I think we may have felt it a little when we would recognize that in our college there were a few of those students who were accepted who had been turned down by some medical school and so they were using the osteopathic profession as sort of a back door to get into the medical profession and then that they had sort of a basic desire to be on that side of the fence if they could.
Dr. Seffinger: There were some people that had worked to get the CMA, COA combined in 1942-3 through the California Osteopathic Association, were you involved with any of that at that time? Were you aware of that at that time?
Dr. Dilworth: We had always heard a little about the possibility at some connection between the two professions when we would go into hospitals and there would be an attempt to see if the osteopathic graduates could get practice rights in some of the larger medical hospitals. This led to the assumption that they would see if that would bring together the two professions. There was only a few hospitals in which they would accept both the MD and DOs on any regular basis. So that, in general, all of the committees tended to have to have separate hospitals up until about the time of the amalgamation in 1958.
Dr. Seffinger: When you were a student at COP&S in 1940-44, and then you went to internship at L.A. County Hospital…
Dr. Dilworth: No, Long Beach, Magnolia Hospital.
Dr. Seffinger: Did you practice in L.A. County Hospital at all.
Dr. Dilworth: Only in terms of the senior year when you were called an extern and you were doing a lot of observation work at the County Hospital.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, so what was your perception of the training opportunities for you at that time and even at Long Beach? Did you get to see a lot of different patients? Did you have MD or DO attendings? Can you describe to us what was it like in getting osteopathic training and describe some of those experiences as a student?
Dr. Dilworth: What was extent of some of the training within the total osteopathic profession? Well, we had to recognize that in those years, what was known as the Osteopathic Unit at L.A. County Hospital was the largest osteopathic hospital in the whole United States and because of this, it was a full accreditation as a County Hospital - so that there was a strong emphasis on the specialty trainings within that hospital situation. And this led again to a bit of the struggle of how well could the osteopathic profession become equivalent or equal with all that the allopathic profession was doing. We feel it was doing a very good job up to that time.
Dr. Seffinger: And some of the people you had out in Long Beach, some of the doctors there, they received training outside of the profession as well or were they grown within the profession?
Dr. Dilworth: Right at the end of the war, the Magnolia Hospital was completely osteopathic. They had good specialties in all fields and gave us an excellent training as interns in the profession. I guess this would be recognized by the fact that when the amalgamation did take place the Magnolia Hospital became the Pacific Hospital in Long Beach.
Dr. Seffinger: Magnolia became Pacific, okay. So, as you are going through your medical training, did you also train with MDs at the same time, together or was it segregated?
Dr. Dilworth: During the intern years and all my training was specifically involved with only the osteopathic men.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, then you graduated and you did your one year internship, you got your license in the state of California, right? Did you get your license in other states or just in California?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes. The question is "where did I get a license in which states?" After having been licensed in California which I maintained even when I was gone, but going back to New Jersey and wanting to be there for a couple of years, I took the New Jersey State Board. It was a State Board which included both the MDs and DOs. We were a small minority so that in New Jersey it was considered a rather difficult State Board and I ran into the interesting side of what this meant when I then was applying to a Mission Board and they found out that I was a licensed doctor in New Jersey. They were quite impressed because of the fact that one of the MDs on the Board for the Mission had not been able to pass the examination in New Jersey so he figured that my status should have been pretty good. I then practiced in New Jersey for the three years while I was attending classes at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, and then you started a practice in California or…?
Dr. Dilworth: After the three years in New Jersey we came back to California where I simply maintained my license in order to have a couple of years while we were making application for going on the foreign missionary service.
Dr. Seffinger: So, for most of the 1950's and into to the early 60's you spent a lot of time in Ecuador?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes, following the return to California in 1948, we went to Ecuador in 1950, where we were going to spend the next 16 years.
Dr. Seffinger: So, were you living there the whole time?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes, we were given the opportunity of reaching three different areas of the Quichuas, so that we had three different locations in which we were able to establish the clinical work to reach the Quichuas and in between those years we only had two furloughs of about six months when we went back to the states in order to maintain the support that we needed to be able to stay in Ecuador.
Dr. Seffinger: In that time period, I think you start out with a few people and you didn't have any churches or schools or anything established when you first started, but by the time you finished you established quite a legacy there. Do you want to mention some of that?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, the question is, "How did we enjoy and what was the result of our efforts in Ecuador." We were extremely pleased with what the response among the Quichuas was in terms of giving them an introduction to some of the modern medicine and of course one of our biggest fields in the clinical work was enabling them to recognize and to cure all of the parasitic problems because it not only completely improved the health of the children, but it also brought in all the public health pattern for preventing the parasites which was basically known through all of the hookworm, amoebas, and various combinations of the Trichomonas and Ascaris and so forth, so that we were real pleased to find that this made a real opening by which the Quichuas were happy to have us there. And because of this, they were willing to come to our small schools and they were willing then to become a part of our little local churches and as a result we were able to have several churches established across the communities.
Dr. Seffinger: How many at the end?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, in that process of time, the communities chose their leaders for the church and we had up to 50 different communities with their individual churches.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, what made you want to come back then to California?
Dr. Dilworth: After that many years in Ecuador and having enjoyed it, we had four children that had gone through school in Ecuador and in the process two of them were ready for college so we found that we would have to come back to the states in order to give them their college education and have them in school. So that's when we started our official introduction to Escondido where we opened an office for a general practice and had a very welcome reception.
Dr. Seffinger: So, when you came back at that time, I think things had changed a little bit about osteopathic practice in California. What did you notice when you came back?
Dr. Dilworth: The question is, "What did I notice when I returned to California?" I believe that the first thing I noticed was how both the leadership and the directorship of the hospital, as well as, a lot of the political situation wanted to know - why I wasn't using an MD degree. So that meant that there was a bit of a stress going on between those who still were enthused about their DO degree as compared with the majority of the doctors who had the MD degree. But the main part of emphases is that the MD degree was limited basically to California and they hadn't given it a widespread of usefulness and so a few of us recognized that it was going to be very important to get a new osteopathic college established in California in order to see that the profession was carried on.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, and did you decide to get involved with that process then?
Dr. Dilworth: And so in the midst of this, since our number of DOs in California was rather limited, we realized that we would have to broaden out the prospect by establishing a new college. When we looked at the colleges that were available, we recognized that in all the nine western states there wasn't a college. As California was a good place to have one, we decided to see what we could do in terms of having a new college. At first, we decided that we would call it the Western States Osteopathic College and that was enough to get a lot of enthusiasm among the public, as well as, some of the other osteopathic doctors in the other parts of the nine states. With this enthusiasm and support, we were able to get the foundation for a new college.
Dr. Seffinger: Now that process sounds easy, but I don't think it was all that simple. Can you talk about the difficulties that you encountered once you decided that the school needed to be developed here?
Dr. Dilworth: What were some of the problems that faced us in the challenge in order to establish a new college? Well, needless to say, it took a lot of cooperation and this meant that we had to meet the political demands out of the Sacramento State Office. We then had to be able to establish a groundwork for becoming an official college which was very complicated, but with people like - Dr. Eby, Dr. Allen and Dr. Frymann, laymen who came in like - Steven Case and Mr. Lein, who was the business advisor, as well as those who were in support of the state, Ruth Kelly- with her big organization of California's Support of Osteopathy - money became available, so that the groundwork could be laid. And thus, we were able to get the official recognition both from the state and then from the National Osteopathic Association - so that the college could be recognized.
Dr. Seffinger: How long did that take?
Dr. Dilworth: We were very fortunate in being able to do a lot of this work in a matter of some four or five years.
Dr. Seffinger: Do you know the names of the years, what they were?
Dr. Dilworth: 1972-1977. I would have a hard time to put too much stress on some of that intermittent years that went from the end of the war because I was out of the state up until 1968; I was not too much aware of some of those original implications that were given in that five and six year period before that.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, so you are talking about the Vietnam War?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes.
Dr. Seffinger: When you came back, you said you had a choice of an MD or DO degree to use, how was it that you could have chosen either/or?
Dr. Dilworth: The question is, "What could you do with both an MD and a DO degree?", and of course that was part of the political setup; that it was established in such a way that they were not going to allow any of the doctors to use both degrees; that was when they said, you had to practice under one degree or the other'. It was an attempt, again, to try to force the amalgamation between them. But there were a few of us who insisted that we were too proud of the profession - especially when in those original struggles from those original years that the amalgamation did not go into any other state - that it was very apparent, that there were those doctors who thought that once California had made the change that the other states would follow, but we in the profession have to be proud of the fact that, ‘No! The osteopathic profession was not going to let it go any further'.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. How many people were there in your group that decided to stay in the profession and maintain integrity of the profession?
Dr. Dilworth: The question is, "How many of our doctors did we have in California who were going to be loyal to the profession" and as I look back on it, I will have to go through the notes to find out, but I'm sure there was somewhere around 25 who were very active and being faithful to the osteopathic profession to make the background.
Dr. Seffinger: That's a small group. Did you become involved with OPSC, very much, at that time?
Dr. Dilworth: Once we had found those who were going to be loyal to the profession then that meant that we would have to reestablish ourselves as an official entity within the state; so, we were making sure to be known as the California Osteopathic Association. It was during the time I was president that we were able to hire Matt Weyeuker becoming our executive secretary. He was a big help in terms of getting along with, of course, the lawyers who had to get us recognized on a state level as being an official organization again within the state. So that by that time we did have an opening by which we could re-license or we could have out-of-state DOs come in to be licensed and then they could become part of the California Osteopathic Association.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. Were you president more than once or just once?
Dr. Dilworth: No, I was president one year; I have to say that was about the time that they had gone through most of the other D.O.s, but the year I was president was when we really got the college well established. Then only shortly after that the Governor appointed me to the Board of Examiners. I sort of felt that there was a conflict of interest and resigned from being a director of the college.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. So do you remember about what year that was?
Dr. Dilworth: It would have been approximately 1984 when I went on the Board of Examiners for the state.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. So, you had previously been involved with starting the school and getting support for that; you had helped OPSC to redevelop a mechanism to get DOs to come back into the state; and then you focused your attention on the licensing board to help license these new doctors coming into the state - for those five years in the 1970s you were pretty busy!
Dr. Dilworth: Yes. The question has to do with the variety of possibilities. From the standpoint in those first years of 1976 and so forth, we had been able to get the privilege of bringing out-of-state DOs to be licensed in California and then that was maintained on through the Board of Directors of the State of California, whereas, our Board of Examiners went over to where we were simply struggling to maintain the quality of the profession within the State.
Dr. Seffinger: Can you describe for us what that was like? You had to figure out how to determine quality and the California Licensing Board decided that everybody who came into the state had to take a written exam and do a practical exam, plus, demonstrate skill in using manipulation (osteopathic manipulation), is that correct?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes, we had established a rather strong criterion by which we were going to recognize these DOs that were coming in from out-of-state; we were also going to be rather persistent that they were going to have a strong emphasis on the osteopathic side of its manipulative therapy; and so we were a bit strict in terms of the examinations that we were extending to them just to see that we could maintain the quality of the profession.
Dr. Seffinger: And in the time you were there, do you know about how many per year you were able to license in the State?
Dr. Dilworth: No. The question is "what was the actual growth of the profession in California in those coming years". No. You would have to go back to look at the line-up of the Board of Directors when they would have their annual counting of all of these. But we were very well pleased with it because I can remember in 1977 when we had a very excellent convention and it was well attended by a large number there so we knew we were well established and it wasn't long after that that we were definitely numbered in the several hundreds.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, so that's a pretty good growth from 25. You mentioned when we were talking off the record about coming together with people who decide to become an MD and some people that decided to maintain their DO. How did you guys get along? Did you practice together? Were you still friends? Did you talk to each other?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, the question would be "What was the relationship between that large group of DOs that accepted their MD degree and then they went on along using it as their source of practice?" I can give a personal example of it here in Escondido. In Escondido there were two out-of-state DO's that had come in and were practicing in California when it took over. They took their MD degree; they stayed in Escondido of course. We were in the hospital; I was maintaining my DO because I didn't take the MD degree. Between the three of us, we were the ones then that chose to exchange our calls on weekends; so that we were capable of working together very nicely with each other in the process and of course it is true that we were all doing a general practice so that a lot of our referrals would have to go to specialties in the medical field, but it was a personal example of good cooperation between those who had made the shift over as compared to my resistance by sticking to the DO degree.
Dr. Seffinger: And did you guys meet outside of your practice together. Did you share patients back and forth still with the other people?
Dr. Dilworth: The question is "how far did we carry this in terms of all the practice exchange?" What I found out though was that I immediately went to make new contacts to try to bring in out-of-state DO's. So let's see, we had Dr. Kubicek who was a DO out of Missouri; then there were two other DOs that decided that they wanted to come. So, I had a tendency to encourage my patients to go to them rather than through the other DOs who had become MDs. But if it was in a very convenient place, and very interestingly, one of these MDs had maintained good manipulative work - so there were those patients who needed special manipulative work that I would still utilize one of them who is now known as an MD.
Dr. Seffinger: What were your hospital privileges? Did you have any problems with that as a DO?
Dr. Dilworth: Well fortunately, the question is about our hospital privileges in Escondido and fortunately, way back as early as 1919 there were two DOs that who were in Escondido from the old school. One of them was especially proficient in obstetrics; and so when they first opened the first hospital, she was granted the obstetrics permission. As a result, she made a good establishment for the DOs - so that the hospital in Escondido then from its very beginning had been willing to accept both the MD and the DO degree.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, and there is one main hospital here?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes.
Dr. Seffinger: What is the name of that hospital?
Dr. Dilworth: Our hospital is known as the Palomar Memorial Hospital. It has some 250 beds, so it is pretty large now.
Dr. Seffinger: So, you are saying that since 1919, the hospital here in Escondido accepted mixed staff, DOs and MDs into their hospital?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, of course, in those early years it wasn't a full-fledged established hospital, hardly, but it got its start and from that very start it had had a couple of DOs along with the MDs.
Dr. Seffinger: Do you remember the names of those DOs.
Dr. Dilworth: Yes, one of them was…I should remember this pretty well because one of them was my twin brother's mother-in-law because my twin brother married her daughter. Her name was Dr. Barker. And Dr. Barker was very active practicing in Escondido up until she died which would have been approximately the year of 1970.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. Your twin brother's name is?
Dr. Dilworth: Is David.
Dr. Seffinger: Did he practice as a doctor?
Dr. Dilworth: No, no. He was the one that was the preacher of the family, but he married this Dr.'s daughter.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, so you are into1970s…the school…you talked about shortly of how you got started in getting going, um, is there anything else you wanted to discuss about the starting of the school and the process by which you came to determine who was going to come in to run the school? That is a very difficult choice to make. You had people that were in the old school who were around; you had faculty; you didn't want to go there obviously; you wanted to find somebody else. How did you go about making the decision as to who was going to run the school?
Dr. Dilworth: The question has to do with sort of the progression of the school from its infancy. I guess I would put a lot of emphasis on the good cooperation between those who were making up a part of this directorship and so forth. I just came in to follow along with Dr. Allen, Dr. Eby, and Dr. Viola Frymann, but in the process they had gotten a good evaluation from business people; from others who were sympathetic to the profession who were putting on the finances in order to establish the school; and then, I will often repeat the name of Steven Case because he was the president of the Pacific College which gave us some good information in terms of the legalities and the many regulations that the State implied; then upon the combination of those in the first year, Viola particularly took the stronger leadership in terms of helping us to recognize that we needed a strong support from the American Osteopathic Association and therefore we should find some of the professors as well as the president who was well informed in the total profession and so we are very thankful that those people then became available; and that was what laid the groundwork and for the college becoming officially the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific.
Dr. Seffinger: And how did you get involved with Phil Pumerantz?
Dr. Dilworth: Our connection with the first president with the professional background…we had been introduced to him through the official AOA office in Chicago. They had spoken highly about what he had done in Connecticut and all, so it was my privilege to go back and interview him about the possibility that he would be interested in helping to get a college started.
Dr. Seffinger: Can you describe that first meeting with him?
Dr. Dilworth: On the first trip to Chicago, and so that in that afternoon's meeting, it was just enough to get acquainted with the fact and to try to let him know that there was really a very serious movement in California. But I guess we have to admit that we didn't have a lot of financial backing yet, so that had discouraged a lot of people, but we didn't come away discouraged we just knew that we were started in the right direction as we talked with other people around the Chicago office of the AOA. So then when we came back we were able to start to lay better groundwork for the establishment of it until Ethan and I were able to go back then and persuade him that it really was a good opportunity and that he would accept it.
Dr. Seffinger: Did you get a feel for why he may have changed his mind?
Dr. Dilworth: The question is "what would be my original feeling of how Phil might have thought of California" and I would probably have to say that there was still in the East a pretty strong feeling about the fact that we had sold the profession down stream when we did allow the makeover. They weren't entirely convinced yet that it might not extend further and providing more trouble and so they were going to play things a little slowly until they could see for sure that the profession was going to come out on the top.
Dr. Seffinger: So how were you able to convince him that their fears were unwarranted?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, that meant that we had to have a stronger establishment of the profession in California and especially from the recognition out of the Sacramento office (political status) in order for the State to become well established on that firm foundation which would have been the real leadership of the osteopathic group. Once we recognized that we were getting the support not only from the public, but also the support from the legislature, then it was enough to convince the AOA office in general and then they would all go along with it.
Dr. Seffinger: Now when you say support from the legislature, how did you demonstrate that?
Dr. Dilworth: Oh, we tried to get the support with the legislature for receiving all of the requirements for setting up a college in the state. That is where Matt Weyeuker had to go to work with a lot of the legislatures up in Sacramento, what do you call the political intrigue that you have to do to reach all of these legislatures?
Dr. Seffinger: Besides lobbying…
Dr. Dilworth: Yes, there was a lot of lobbying to try to convince them; fortunately we did have good support out of them.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. So, you were able to demonstrate within the middle of the 1970s that you were able to pull that together and get Dr. Pumerantz to come in and become president and then he had to select a board of trustees. How did the Board of Trustees come about? Did someone select it? Did he select it? Did someone elect them or appoint them? How did you guys develop a Board of Trustees?
Dr. Dilworth: The question is, "how did the original board for the college…ah," I think you better go back through the notes to see where…you would be aware of two things: one is the primary credit still goes to Dr. Allen and Dr. Frymann because they were still the ones who were setting up the strongest support in terms of that organization. Then when Phil came along with them and they recognized that they needed a broader support; that's when they went to Oregon to bring in somebody there, that could be a representative; somebody from Arizona because we were definitely going to represent the western states. And so the Board of Directors was chosen by way of recommendation out of the osteopathic profession in those states. They recommended who would make a good member to the board. It wasn't so much that we had to make the choice from here, we only asked those states to give us their choice…
Dr. Seffinger: Then who made the actual decision as to who would end up being on the board?
Dr. Dilworth: And whatever that choice was, that came back to the board, and the board would accept.
Dr. Seffinger: And so you and Dr. Frymann and Dr. Allen were the primary three people who started the board?
Dr. Dilworth: Dr. Eby.
Dr. Seffinger: Dr. Eby?
Dr. Dilworth: And then of course, Steve Case was still on the Board at the time just before, but by the time Phil was here then, he was already enlarging the Board, so that that's where Lawless came on from Oregon and so forth.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, so then he got people to come in, those that were good…
Dr. Dilworth: And would accept those that were on the Board.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay.
Dr. Dilworth: And in fact, one of my patients, a very interesting lady by the name of Joyce Malcalm who had been a donator to the college, Phil was nice enough to put her on the Board at my recommendation.
Dr. Seffinger: Did you have other patients who helped build the college in some way.
Dr. Dilworth: Primarily we were looking pretty hard, so that we had printed folders that were announcing the college. We handed them out to all our patients, and fortunately, I had three families who took a special interest in supporting the college.
Dr. Seffinger: Who were they?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, the ones I remember the most because my memory doesn't always work that good, but the Oberhausers were the ones that were there for the longest period of time.
Dr. Seffinger: How did you spell their names?
Dr. Dilworth: O-b-e-r- h-a-u-s-e-r and then the Wyman's who were from Rancho Bernardo. He was very loyal to the profession and so he's the one who set up his family trust in favor of the college.
Dr. Seffinger: W-y-m…?
Dr. Dilworth: Ah, W-y-m-a-n, because they didn't have any children they were very generous to the college.
Dr. Seffinger: And one more?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, Mr. Lein, L-e-i-n, he was a real business man having retired out here from Chicago. He had known the profession back there and that is the reason why he was loyal here. He became a very interesting businessman and as a patient of mine was very helpful both here and at the college.
Dr. Seffinger: I believe there is a tribute to these people at school.
Dr. Dilworth: Yes, there are several of them in the famous Walk of Tribute.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, that is in the Health Science, HSC?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes.
Dr. Seffinger: Now, after 1980, you were on the Examining Board, were you on the Examining Licensing Board for many years?
Dr. Dilworth: You have to remember that the Board of Examiners was not for the actual licensing. The Board of Examiners was only for the evaluation of any of those who got in trouble after they were licensed. As I recall, they were licensed through the Board of Directors of the State and this Examining Board was not for those who were coming in out of state, but more to control the actual status of practice that they were doing to make sure that there was no malpractice taking place. We were more of a policing system then we were of a committee that was licensing in order to become members.
Dr. Seffinger: Well, were you administering the exams or another group was administering the exams?
Dr. Dilworth: It was another group that actually administered the exams.
Dr. Seffinger: How long were you with the Board of Examiners?
Dr. Dilworth: About four years.
Dr. Seffinger: Four years. Then when you finished that what did you do?
Dr. Dilworth: Then I was about ready to figure that I had better finish my practice.
Dr. Seffinger: So you went back practicing fulltime.
Dr. Dilworth: Well, I was practicing fulltime during all of that anyway.
Dr. Seffinger: So you spent more time in that. Were you involved any further in the school in Pomona at all?
Dr. Dilworth: In relation to the school, I guess I would have to say that my continuing involvement was only in referring students. I had several local boys and women that I encouraged to apply to the school; so that I think I would have to say that they would be the primary connection apart from going to all their special meetings.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. The question we have left is the mentoring issue and who mentored you, who did you mentor, who helped you out and who did you help out along the way?
Dr. Dilworth: I can't add anything about anybody that I took on as a specific measure because this would simply be those DO's that came in around here. Like right now I sold my office to the lady doctor out of COP&S and gave her a big deal. So I mentored her by selling her my office, but I wouldn't call that good mentoring. I would just call that a financial point.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay and who helped you out when you came back from Ecuador?
Dr. Dilworth: Oh, I was fortunate to still have a few friends having returned back to California. Dr. MacDowell of the famous MacDowell Clinic in Norwalk took me in so I could get oriented to all of North American Medical procedures. It was there that I became better acquainted with Ethan Allen. Ethan Allen was a big help in putting the stress again on some of the osteopathic manipulative techniques and so forth that were new in the state and gave me a rare opportunity at feeling very comfortable at reestablishing my roots in California. I have been grateful to Ethan all these years because of that.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, then you stayed working there in Norwalk or did you work with them at that clinic?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes because we were actually in Norwalk for the whole year. Yes, I was indirectly connected with the Norwalk Medical Group for that whole year. I tried to figure just how many hours I put in with them, but I know I was always on call on Saturdays. A lot of the afternoon and evenings were special days that I would fill in for the other doctors. I was still assisting some of the surgical specialists, so that was good experience as far as getting back to where you were doing all of it on your own like in Ecuador.
Dr. Seffinger: Did you do a lot of surgery in Ecuador?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, it would be basically ambulatory type of work. Our hospital was just set-up and in fact I had gone up to start another small clinic, by the time that hospital was functioning. We never really had a lot of operation work until the later time.
Dr. Seffinger: Did you deliver babies?
Dr. Dilworth: Ah, too many. My favorite story doesn't fit in too well here, but it was probably the thing that made us the most famous. These Indian people were smart. They knew enough that when a woman would go into labor, if she didn't deliver the baby in the first eight or ten hours there was big trouble. As a result I had a case in which this woman had a transverse arrest. They allowed me to come over and see her. So I was able by nothing more than putting on gloves, went in and did a vaginal extraction. I was able to extract the dead fetus, but the woman survived. They knew the woman was going to die. It was a bad situation, but as a result in the next three months I had seven women brought in under somewhat similar conditions, all of them in which the baby was dead, but they all knew the mother was going to die. Fortunately we had just gotten penicillin shots from Belgium. The Belgium government had sent us a lot of penicillin. So we had penicillin to combat the infections. We were able to save six of the seven women. Most of them had some infection after all this, but the point was we were able to remove the baby. So when they survived it only took those six to tell all the people around and within a matter of another month my two nurses were having to get up at 12:00 o'clock at night to hand out numbers to the people at the front gate wanting to get in. We knew we couldn't see more than 40 patients in the day time. They would have to tell the other people to go away - to come back at another time. So we were really overwhelmed for a short time.
Dr. Seffinger: When you came back here did you deliver babies here?
Dr. Dilworth: I started out doing a few for the Spanish woman because my bilingual ability was a bit attractive to them, but the hospital than became slowly more specialized. In the obstetric department some of the specialists said that if you aren't doing at least 80% deliveries, you would not be allowed in the delivery room any more, so I had to cancel out my deliveries.
Dr. Seffinger: And these were DOs that were setting the limit or MDs.
Dr. Dilworth: No, they were all MDs in that case because we didn't have any DO obstetricians.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay.
Dr. Dilworth: It was the same thing they did, you see, when you were here in 1980. The hospital hadn't expanded too large in terms of all the specialties, but I could assist on all the major surgery, still deliver babies and still have your admitting procedures. But along about 1989, 90, which is another eight or so years in there, that's when they began to cancel you out on what surgeries you could assist on; that is when they put a restriction on deliveries because thy were highly specialized at that time.
Dr. Seffinger: Right.
Dr. Dilworth: A typical North American hospital.
Dr. Seffinger: Well speaking of obstetricians, you said you had known Dorothy Marsh. Do you remember Dorothy very well?
Dr. Dilworth: Well only that she was the one that gave us lectures in some of the original classes in obstetrics that we had.
Dr. Seffinger: Right.
Dr. Dilworth: So she was known as a good professor.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay and then did you know Dr. Eby who was also an obstetricians?
Dr. Dilworth: No, I only got acquainted when I was more in connection with the doctors in the Ontario and Upland areas and of course Dr. Eby and Dr. Stahl were the two that were very sympathetic from the mission point of view because Dr. Stahl was in that big Baptist church in Pomona and by the time I came back Dr. Eby then had gone east you know where he was working in the east so we didn't have any real personal connection on a professional level at that time.
Dr. Seffinger: Did you meet him when he came back to help start the school?
Dr. Dilworth: Yes.
Dr. Seffinger: And you worked with him to help start the school at that time?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, he was in and out during part of that time, but he was the one who particularly had all the connections with the mayor, all of the politicians in the town; for getting them in back of setting up the area and buildings we needed for the school. So Dr. Eby did all of that from sort of an extended area even though a lot of the time he wasn't actually in town.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay, he had connections in Pomona.
Dr. Dilworth: You'll have to follow him on what those actual years were that…
Dr. Seffinger: Right.
Dr. Dilworth: Because he was in the process of getting ready to retire but he hadn't yet.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay and then other people - Stuart Chesky was an obstetrician that helped start the Pacific Hospital Long Beach graduate program for interns there, did you know him at all?
Dr. Dilworth: He came in just about the end of my internship; I didn't know him personally.
Dr. Seffinger: I'm talking about Pacific Hospital in the 1980s.
Dr. Dilworth: Oh, no that would have been another doctor.
Dr. Seffinger: Some of the other people that…did you know Forrest Grunigen at all?
Dr. Dilworth: Basically, by name more than by any kind of practice he did except he was again giving special lectures at times for us.
Dr. Seffinger: And Steven Teale, did you know him?
Dr. Dilworth: Only in terms of the political news that would come down. The ones that I knew the best in those early years were Dr. Hatfield because he had done a lot for the surgical side of the college. In my senior year I had worked in his office where he had Dr. Davidson, Dr. Hatfield and then a woman who did all the obstetrics for them. I was working for them and then it was Dr. Hatfield's partner who became the surgeon down at Magnolia Hospital. So that was a big help then to recognize that his assistant became one of the chief surgeons down at Magnolia. It was a nice connection.
Dr. Seffinger: It reminds me when you started the school here in Pomona. You didn't have any hospitals to train people at. How were you going to train the students in hospitals?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, you have to remember that Dr. Lee had the makings of a basic hospital there and…
Dr. Seffinger: Where was that?
Dr. Dilworth: Oh, it's the one now as I last recall; it is now one of your outpatient clinics for the college.
Dr. Seffinger: Mission Street…it's in Pomona…
Dr. Dilworth: Yes, it's in Pomona…you see my primary connection had been with the hospital over in Ontario because that's where I got my connections…
Dr. Seffinger: Parkview Hospital or…?
Dr. Dilworth: That's where I got my connections when I was at Chaffey College. I should recall those names, but…
Dr. Seffinger: Pomona Valley Community Hospital and there was a Park Avenue Hospital…?
Dr. Dilworth: No, that…
Dr. Seffinger: That's different, that's Dr. Eby's…
Dr. Dilworth: Yes, that was Dr. Eby's.
Dr. Seffinger: Pomona Valley Community Hospital…
Dr. Dilworth: I don't know, that's the one that was very active with the college originally.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. So it was probably the Ontario Community Hospital.
Dr. Dilworth: When I took the graduate course in gynecological surgery the fellow who was there with me went back and he became the genealogical surgeon for that hospital, Ontario Community.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. All right and so you weren't involved much with the development of training for the students practice…
Dr. Dilworth: No.
Dr. Seffinger: That was after you had to have established the school, the bylaws and you were involved with developing the bylaws for the college I image, how it was going to run, things like that, the policies and procedures. Were you involved with developing policies and procedures?
Dr. Dilworth: Well, you have to be real careful in terms of, as you would guess you would have committees that would turn these over and then Phil would present them to the Board of Directors. All we had to do was vote them in. So it wasn't a case that we had really anything to do with the writing of them, but it was done by very careful work of committees.
Dr. Seffinger: I see, okay, okay is there anybody else that you can think of that we should know about, look up or interview or peoples works that we should look up, documents we should look up?
Dr. Dilworth: Of course we have a couple of them that are a bit of leadership down in San Diego so they are quite active yet because that takes you over to La Jolla and part of those that are in active leadership of the San Diego division for the state and a couple of them of course are part time on the faculty at the college so we have a vague connection with those that we have encouraged to follow along but nothing specific.
Dr. Seffinger: Now, there are some people that you may have been involved with at the time that may have passed on, but their families are still around that we can contact, is there anybody that you think was significantly involved with historical development of osteopathy in the state that you think we ought to contact the family to find out what kind of documents they may have or information they have about their family members involvement with the development of osteopathy in the state of California?
Dr. Dilworth: No, I wouldn't have any connection with whatever families they may of had. When you think of Dr. Shut and so on, I rather doubt there was any family connected with her.
Dr. Seffinger: Well you can let us know the names of people that we should pay attention to in history that their name should be mentioned and maybe we can do some search and find out more about them. Anybody you think should be part of this historical document? Maybe we should mention their names or give them their proper acknowledgement.
Dr. Dilworth: Well, we'll have to, after you have gone through all those pages you'll see if you pick up any names that you are really interested in.
Dr. Seffinger: Okay. That's fine, thank you very much for your time and your efforts. If anything comes to mind bring it to our attention and see what happens.