Dr. Kenneth Pitts ::

I have been seriously derelict in posting the past few days about things and people who I care very much about and I need to comment on the article in Friday's Huntsville Times about Dr. Pitts. Here are a couple of excerpts followed by my thoughts:

Usually, the nurses hear Dr. Kenneth Pitts coming before they see him: There's the singing, the tap of fancy dance steps in the hallway, the calls of "Where's my hug?" as he passes nurses and patients.

"He gets off the elevator dancing a gig - literally dancing," said Bonnie Rausch, R.N., a charge nurse on the fifth floor at Huntsville Hospital for Women. "Everybody is in a lighter mood when he comes here."

[snip]

before she told her own pastor. She asked if he would go see her.

"I knew Dr. Pitts had a busy day planned, but I asked him anyway," Rausch said, taking a short break during a morning shift last week. "They had never met, but that didn't stop him from walking to room 327. He held hands with my frightened sister and with my mom and formed a circle, and they prayed. This helped ease my sister's fears and gave her peace."

[snip]

Jasmine Hill, a unit secretary and patient care technician, knows Pitts both as a colleague at the hospital and as a patient. She and her husband's first child miscarried last fall.

"I could not imagine going through that with any other doctor," Hill said. "I don't think I've ever seen Dr. Pitts down or upset, even if something is not carried out according to his orders. And he's like that in his office, too. He doesn't start an exam or leave without a word of prayer."

[snip]

Pitts, who only agreed to be interviewed when Dahlin, Rausch and some other nurses insisted it might inspire others, is glad if anything he does brings comfort to anyone.

But he insists he's doing nothing that can't be done by anyone else, too.

"The whole essence of what I do is, I enjoy the Lord," Pitts said. "The whole idea is: It ain't for you; it's for God's children."

On January 23, 1998 my wife was in a horrific traffic accident and lingered between life and death for several weeks. Our oldest, D., was pregnant at the time and Dr. Pitts was her obstetrician. My wife was in a coma for 5 weeks eventually spending 8 weeks in Huntsville Hospital and another 8 weeks in the Health South Rehab hospital. During that entire time I don't remember a single day when Dr. Pitts didn't stop in to visit and say a few words of encouragement.

Taylor was born a week after J. was released and had the honor of cutting her umbilical cord! Dr. Pitts will always have a special place in our hearts!