# Primary doctor died **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 11, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166 "2012-08-11T05:21:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/1 "2012-08-11T05:21:15Z")
I went into my doctor’s office last week to get a prescription renewed, there were flowers all around. I looked at a card, it was an "in sympathy " so I asked, thinking it was the doc’s or some one in the office reletive,. Unfortunately it was the doctor, he hiked on his own and fell(in the Sierras). So sad. He was a good guy. He’ll be missed. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/2 "2012-08-11T05:32:21Z")
I lost my primary doctor, too. However, that was due to the fact that he apparently was overprescribing opiates and lost his license. Oops. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/3 "2012-08-11T06:41:54Z")
I grew up in the country, and we had two Doctors who serviced the area. One of them smoked like a train and died of emphysema in his 70s. The other, who ran regularly in marathons and advocated a healthy lifestyle to every patient who came to see him, died of a heart attack at 50. I’m still not sure what to take away from that. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/4 "2012-08-11T06:45:26Z")
I’m sorry to hear this. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/5 "2012-08-11T09:20:45Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I grew up in the country, and we had two Doctors who serviced the area. One of them smoked like a train and died of emphysema in his 70s. The other, who ran regularly in marathons and advocated a healthy lifestyle to every patient who came to see him, died of a heart attack at 50. > > I’m still not sure what to take away from that. It’s clearly the effect made famous by the all-time classic Car Talk Puzzler [a haircut in horse town](http://school.discoveryeducation.com/brainboosters/reasoning/barbershop.html). Obviously the doctors can’t doctor themselves, so of course the “good” doctor is less healthy than the “bad” doctor. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/6 "2012-08-11T09:23:22Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > I went into my doctor’s office last week to get a prescription renewed, there were flowers all around. I looked at a card, it was an "in sympathy " so I asked, thinking it was the doc’s or some one in the office reletive,. Unfortunately it was the doctor, he hiked on his own and fell(in the Sierras). So sad. He was a good guy. He’ll be missed. Is this the only way you could have found out? No letter, phone call or email? Or did you get a letter afterwards? How long before last week did he die? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/7 "2012-08-11T11:47:29Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Is this the only way you could have found out? No letter, phone call or email? Or did you get a letter afterwards? How long before last week did he die? Depending on how many patients the doctor serves, it may take a seriously long time to notify all of his patients. I don’t think most offices have a “print envelopes for all patients on record” option in their scheduling system so the staff can stuff letters into them. They were probably doing their own grieving while simultaneously scrambling to cancel/reschedule/find coverage for visits scheduled for that week and in the near future. The OP was only coming in to get a prescription refilled, which they couldn’t have predicted, so I don’t blame them. Having dealt with a couple of doctors leaving the practice, what we did was just notify patients as we worked through the schedules for each upcoming clinic day, to notify them of the new doctor covering that clinic. The doctor we had who died had actually retired the previous year, moved far away, and died within days after 9/11/01, so we ended up just calling a few patients important to him and just mentioning it to former patients as they came in for visits, I think. (For that doctor, it was skin cancer. He was a cardiologist but had a lifelong fondness for getting tan at Carnivale in Rio. Died in his early 70s IIRC.) ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/8 "2012-08-11T14:56:35Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Is this the only way you could have found out? No letter, phone call or email? Or did you get a letter afterwards? How long before last week did he die? I received a letter a week later. The office people said it was in the news when it happened because he was missing for three days. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/9 "2012-08-11T15:07:57Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I lost my primary doctor, too. However, that was due to the fact that he apparently was overprescribing opiates and lost his license. Oops. I am sorry for your lost opportunity. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/10 "2012-08-11T22:18:46Z")
If you live long enough many persons you associate with, including doctors, will die. I’ve had a primary care neurologist commit suicide - this was probably too my benefit as I’ve lived a better life since he effected his demise. I’ve worked for doctors in my years as a medical technologist and one of these committed suicide and this was a loss to me. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/11 "2012-08-12T01:33:11Z")
The least the office could do is offer the OP a discount on his next visit. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/primary-doctor-died/631166/12 "2012-08-13T16:25:44Z")
[**The** primary doctor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Doctor).