HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital issued the following announcement on Aug. 17.
Drs. Brian Miller, Virginia Dauz and Urbano Dauz have served at the Shelbyville hospital, now HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital, for more than a 100-years, collectively. They call them themselves “the old school doctors of the hospital.” As their careers have spanned the decades, they have enjoyed working together.
Springfield-based, Dr. Miller is a cardiologist from the Prairie Heart Institiute at HSHS St. John’s Hospital and is part of the hospital’s specialty clinic. He celebrated 30 years in July since he began holding clinics in Shelbyville in 1978.
“I have seen a great deal of changes over the years. I have enjoyed working with Drs. Ban and Virginia. I have seen physicians come and go but as much as medicine may change, people don’t. They still have the same needs,” Dr. Miller said. In medicine, we are doing things now that would have been science fiction when I first started my practice. As cardiologists, we are putting in defibrillators and pacemakers now which are wireless. We are installing heart valves and using stents to open arteries. We could never do that before which is the great thing about medicine. It makes advances every day.”
Miller went on to tell a story from his time in Shelbyville that impacted his career.
“One morning, during the time of the boy’s IHSA championship playoffs in which Shelbyville was playing, I kept getting the feeling that I needed to leave early and go to the Shelbyville clinic. I wasn’t scheduled to have my first patient until 9 a.m. but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to go.
“I arrived in Shelbyville at 6:30 a.m. Almost as soon as I walked through the door, I was told I was needed in the emergency department because we had received a patient who was having a heart attack. I was able to help stabilize him and send him to Springfield. There he received the surgery he needed and survived.”
Dr. Miller stressed the importance of the Shelbyville hospital and how it’s affiliation with HSHS has only made it stronger.
“The change from being an independent hospital to one that is a part of something like HSHS means continuity for the hospital. The alliance with the other HSHS hospitals in the system gives its resources so much depth and makes it more efficient for patients. In many ways, it’s the same place it was 30 years ago, but it’s also so much better now and the office staff is wonderful.”
Dr. Virginia Dauz, commonly known as Dr. Virginia to her patients and colleagues retired only a few years ago after serving for 38 years as a pediatrician.
She said she came to the U.S. in 1966 from the Phillippines and quickly became acclimated to the country. She and her husband, Dr. Urbano Dauz, who is known as Dr. Ban, first practiced in Maine and then moved to Bushnell, Ill. There they started their family. Their office and their hospital were located in opposite directions of their home. She said they felt like they were constantly commuting.
Dr. Siroy, who was from the same village in the Phillippines as Dr. Virginia, told the couple of openings at the Shelbyville hospital, and they decided it was a good time to move. They liked it because they could have their office and hospital in one place. Also, Dr. Virginia decided to hold part-time hours in her office so that she had more time with her family. The hospital readily agreed and Shelbyville became their new home.
According to Dr. Virginia, a big attraction for Dr. Ban was Lake Shelbyville. He was a fisherman, and he fell in love with the lake. “It’s a decision we have never regretted,” Dr. Virginia said. “We had time to slow our pace, stop and smell the roses here and the community has always been very good to us. We could see neighbors helping neighbors here and the community has become an extension of our family. It is such a friendly place.”
Dr. Virginia also commented on the change from the independence of the hospital to that of being part of HSHS.
“As a people of strong faith, we treated people more of the physical nature. Now, we treat people holistically and it is a more all-encompassing approach,” she said. “It is easier to help someone when you use a total approach.”
Dr. Ban practiced family medicine and recalled when they first arrived in Shelbyville. He said, “Our medical staff meetings were held at Guy’s Steakhouse.
“We watched the town grow with so much change,” he said. “I saw a lot of changes in the hospital. It was always improving, always reaching for better service. I’m not ready to retire yet. I like to be useful, and I want to continue to serve.
“I’m in good company here with Dr. Miller. I enjoy seeing patients who come to us quite sick and watch them get better, grow and raise children of their own. It’s wonderful to see that change in people’s lives.
“It’s very important to remember that Good Shepherd Hospital is a point of access to care and to greater services,” Dr. Ban said. “It’s invaluable to the community for its care, especially its emergent care.”
Original source can be found here.
Source: HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital
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