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As darkness settled on Elkton one Friday night in 1978, Union Hospital’s Emergency Department buzzed with activity.  The attending doctor, Peter Stavrakis, efficiently directed care while nurses performed procedures, monitors beeped, and anxious families paced hallways.  When the physician started examining a new arrival, the belligerent man struck him on the head with a metal bedpan.  The resulting gash required sutures, but Stavrakis, after briefly pausing to get stitched up, pressed on, refusing to slow down or take a break.  There were broken limbs, chest pain cases, and who knows what else to be seen that hectic night as the 12-hour overnight shift ground on.

This injury was a small matter for a military surgeon who sharpened his skills on the battlefields of Europe and thrived on the hectic pace of emergency medicine.  It was also typical of the caregiver who put patients and profession first. Born in Ukraine in 1917, Stavrakis earned his medical degree from Shevchenko University at the age of 21, graduating in the top 10% of the class.  Fresh out of school, when World War II broke out, the physician gained combat know-how treating injured soldiers in the Red Army and was taken prisoner by Germany.  After the war, the refugee moved to Long Island with his family and $32 in his pocket so he worked as a gardener until finding a residency program.  When he hung out his shingle in Elkton on May 8, 1953, the cost for a visit was $3.

The healer practiced family medicine for 19 years, doing everything from delivering babies to treating broken limbs and helping ease the end of life.  Brenda Belay, a nurse, recalls that when she moved here in 1969, she took her family to the clinician since she saw how knowledgeable he was and how he cared for patients.  “He treated everyone the same, whether you could pay or not, and he was very popular.”

Creating an Emergency Dept. in the Local Hospital

When Union Hospital got ready to forge new territory, he was ready for a fresh challenge so he turned his family practice over to Dr. Hsu in 1972 and took charge of creating an Emergency Department staffed by physicians concentrating exclusively on emergency medicine.  New life-saving technologies and techniques, changes in medicine, and increasing caseloads called for highly skilled practitioners dedicated full-time to staffing the department around the clock.  He was the department’s Medical Director for 16 years, where seasoned by priceless lessons learned in war, the caregiver was in his element.

Maryland’s sophisticated emergency medical system of trauma centers and helicopter transport hadn’t evolved. Hence, Union Hospital handled everything from simple medical cases to desperately ill or severely injured patients,” Cathie Null, a nurse, recalls.  “Now critical injuries are transported directly from the scene to Shock Trauma.  Medicine didn’t have as much sophisticated diagnostic equipment or procedures in the 1970s.  But the knowledgeable physician had an innate diagnostic ability and a unique way of identifying what was wrong.  He took a good history, did a physical examination, ordered clinical tests, and swung into action, often treating patients hovering between life and death as he skillfully commanded care for trauma cases that are handled in Baltimore today,” she says.

“He was a wonderful diagnostician,” Connie Ceban, an ED nurse for 28 years, adds.  “He was on his game when the worst cases came in, patients sometimes involved in an all-out fight for life and in need of urgent care.  His war experience taught him how to deal with the trauma, and he was noted for his ability to suture wounds without leaving a scar.  That was something he was proud of.”

Picking up on these points, his daughter, Olga Stavrakis, adds:  “He relied very heavily on observation of the patient’s eyes, face, expression, and demeanor. . . . He could see by the color of the skin and the look in the eye what was going on inside the human body.”  From his father, a highly acclaimed Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon in Ukraine, he inherited “the ability to see into the patient and diagnose correctly and very steady hands that could perform minute surgery with confidence.  His hands remained steady up to the end.”

Dr. Peter Stavrakis —  A Pioneer in Many Ways

With guidance from Stravakis, Cecil’s first pre-hospital advanced life support providers hit the road in 1978.  Before that, field care largely consisted of a speedy ride in an ambulance with little medical equipment.  “Instrumental in getting the paramedic initiative started, he served as our medical director and was the program’s biggest advocate,” Shirley Herring, one of the members of that class, recalls.  “He taught several lessons and we worked with him in the ER.  Anytime he had anything unusual, he always had time to explain it to us.”

 

I responded to my first heart attack call as an advanced life support provider in 1978.  It was in the middle of the night at a lonely spot miles from the hospital, and when we entered the darkened house, the patient had a lethal heart rhythm.  I nervously transmitted an EKG and radioed crucial information to the hospital.  As the signal containing the heart pattern beamed into the hospital, this confident, authoritative voice blared over the network, penetrating the Maryland night.  It was Stavrakis shouting hurried orders for invasive procedures to defibrillate the heart, intubate the patient, start an IV, and administer drugs for critical seconds were rushing by.  Most apprehensive about executing these tasks without the doctor’s firm hand nearby for the first time, my hands begin to shake badly, but somehow I managed to follow the barrage of orders as he guided me through the process.

A little later, at the hospital, my hands were still shaking as I tried to hold a cup of coffee in those pre-dawn hours long ago.  I remember one of the aides, Edna, came over as I tried to steady the drink to ask what was wrong with me.  Somehow the distant guidance of the battle-hardened World War II surgeon and his barrage of rapid-fire commands got us through that first call.

Dr. Kenneth Lewis, the hospital’s president, recalls meeting the emergency medicine practitioner in 1978 when he first set up his office.  “Peter, who was a font of knowledge, set a high standard.  He knew all the specialties . . . and his commitment to patients and the profession was contagious.”

At the age of 77, having treated some 140,000 patients and seen enormous progress in medicine and Union Hospital, he hung up his stethoscope when he retired from the ER in 1994.  When family, friends, and colleagues gathered to honor him, he said, “Such a celebration for an old man who is going out of business,” as he talked about his professional life.  But he wasn’t going to ease completely into retirement, for he returned to where he started, working with Dr. Hsu in her family practice.

Once when he was recuperating from shoulder surgery, a colleague asked the physician if he had any hobbies, Olga notes.  “My father ignored the question dismissing it with an indulgent smile.  I took it upon myself to explain that my father had only one passion in life, which was his work, his hobby, and his definition of self, and that was his medicine.  Healing gave him life, and healing sustained him.”

After he retired, we occasionally talked.  The last time was at a Middle Eastern Restaurant in Newark.  Walking in with a group, the aging physician came over to my table so we chatted about the past, his mind as sharp as ever.  At some point, I said “Doc, I’d like to record your recollections someday.”   To that, he replied matter of factly, just as authoritatively and clinically as when the chief of emergency medicine guided me through my first advanced medical procedures nearly 30 years ago, I’m dying.  I not sure how I responded, but to whatever it was he added directly yes and provided medical insight just as if he were explaining the complexities of the case to one of his paramedic students decades ago.  As our conversation ended all too soon that spring evening in 2006, it would be the last time I would talk to the 89-year-old.

Dr. Peter Stavrakis, the respected doctor who took care of generations of Cecil Countians, saved many lives and contributed so much to this community as a healthcare innovator, passed away on July 15, 2006.  I will always remember our last conversation.

See Also about Physicians in Cecil County

Remembering Dr. James L. Johnson, a Respected County Physician, a blog post – Dr. Peter Stavrakis help Dr. Johnson get admitting privileges at Union Hospital. See the article for the details.

Remembering Dr. James L. Johnson — An album of photos on Facebook.

Just days before Cecil County residents celebrated the arrival of a New Year, welcoming in 1886, an aging social reformer, orator, and writer, traveled to Cecil County to lecture on “The Self-Made Man.”  On his way to Rising Sun where the town’s literary society was sponsoring the program, the abolitionist leader, Frederick Douglass, who’d escaped from slavery, stopped for a few hours in Port Deposit.  There he attracted considerable attention.

The program on the evening of Dec. 28, 1885, attracted a large audience, the Oxford Press reported.  “Mr. Douglass is growing old and has lost much of his fire and vigor of mind as well as body, but he is still able to interest an audience.  He is a remarkable man and is a bright example of the capability of the colored race, even under the blighting influence of slavery, from which he emerged and became one of the distinguished citizens of the country.  His lecture was replete with advice for the younger portion of his audience,” the paper wrote.

“The Self-Made Man” was a famous lecture by Frederick Douglass.  In the speech, which was first delivered in 1859, he gives his own definition of the self-made man and explains what he thinks are the means to become such a man, according to Wikipedia.  “Self-made men […] are the men who owe little or nothing to birth, relationship, friendly surroundings; to wealth inherited or to early approved means of education; who are what they are, without the aid of any of the favoring conditions by which other men usually rise in the world and achieve great results.”

Born in 1818 in Talbot County, he died in 1895.

Also see the wife of Frederick Douglass visited Cecil County.

The Rising Sun inset of Martenet’s Map of Cecil County published in 1858 (Source Library of Congress)

A circa 1910 postcard showing the Turkey Point Lighthouse.

One of the leaders of America’s abolitionist movement, Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland in 1817. As a young house servant, he was taught to read and write. The brutality he experienced as a slave eventually led him to escape North and in 1845 he published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. A noted speaker, Douglass influenced such important figures as Abraham Lincoln.

Bill Grimmette is a living history interpreter, storyteller, actor, and motivational speaker who has performed throughout the United States and abroad. He has researched and performed the characters of W. E. B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Banneker, Estevanico, and Augustus Washington. He has appeared at the Smithsonian Institution and on National Public Radio. He has an M.A. in psychology from the Catholic University of America, and has done post-graduate work in education at George Mason University.

DATE Wednesday, February 16, 2011

TIME 7:00 PM

Cecil County Public Library, Eltkon, 301 Newark Avenue, Elkton, MD. 21921

The event is underwritten by the Maryland Humanities Council

Members of Singerly Fire Company stand alongside their apparatus at the new fire station on North Street in downtown Elkton, a few years after operations moved up the street from the originally headquarters.   We’ll see if we can get some of the older members of the organizaton to identify these individuals.

Singerly Fire Companyu of Elkton, MD. will present its twenty-fourth annual Paper American Show on Saturday, January 29, 2011, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The show will feature over thirty dealers from several states who are offering for sale antique books, postcards, newspapers, art prints, advertising & regional collectibles, photographs, and general ephemera.

Singerly Fire Hall is located at the intersection of Rotue 213 and Route 279 in Elkton (300 Newark Ave.) approximatley three miles from the Route 279 Newark/Elkton interchange on I-95 (exit 109A)

Admission is $3,00 person ($2.00 with this ad) – children under 13 admitted free of charge.  Refreshments will be provided by the Ladies Auxiliary.  For additional informaton email ayersj@zoominternet.net or call 410-398-7735 or 410-398-7300 during show hours. 

It’s always exciting to obtain fresh perspectives and insights on the county’s past, something that is often provided when scholars take a serious look at our history.  These thorough investigations, requiring months of intensive digging into original documents and a critical evaluation of the sources, are valuable as they focus on specific research questions and use the highest principles of historical inquiry and analysis to piece together an understanding of things that came before us.

Eric Mease is one of those bringing a scholar’s fresh eye to an unstudied subject in Cecil County.  As a University of Delaware graduate student, he launched an investigation two years ago that sought to piece together the story of the United States Colored Troops from this area.  His Master of Arts thesis, Black Civil War Patriots of Cecil County, Maryland, was just approved by the University’s history department.

His investigation began at the Historical Society as he reviewed the literature on a few things that had been done earlier, such as a 1960s register of Civil War-era African-American Troops from the county.  Eric moved on from that baseline to visit cemeteries to verify his information and to add new patriots to his list.  He continued by talking to families, visiting archives, studying wills and legal records, and using newspapers.  In addition, he poured over old newspapers, studied slave tax records and manumissions, and extracted data from census registers.  Through all of this, he was able to piece together this far-reaching story for the first time.   The sources he investigated indicated that between 200 and 400 African-Americans from Cecil County volunteered during the Civil War.  His fieldwork specifically developed information on about 200 of these men.

Another person doing fieldwork for a professional monograph is Dr. Guy Alchon of the University of Delaware.  His focus is on the impact of World War-II on Elkton.  For a couple of years, the professor has been conducting fieldwork, taping oral histories, searching through old World War-II federal documents at the national archives, examining local government materials, and studying aging newspapers.  From that, he is planning a monograph that will be published and presented at one of the national groups, such as the American Organization of Historians.  This labor-intensive project is still ongoing.

We’ll look forward to having these valuable research titles become available to everyone as these academics add reliable sources for our understanding of the county’s story.  Meanwhile, congratulations to Eric for the successful completion of this academic milestone, as he adds a postnominal to his credentials.

Link to Library of Congress Photo

From ABC 2 News, Baltimore

NORTH EAST, Md. – Atop a hill just outside North East, Maryland lays civil war veteran James D. Alexander.  He fought in the famed battles of Gettysburg and Antietam; he was wounded and lost a leg in the skirmish at Spotsylvania Court House.

But while he was laid to rest almost 90 years ago, it may never have been in peace. “He was never recognized, given recognition. He was just buried and forgotten.” said John Goff. Until Goff started coming across artifacts that belonged of his great grandfather. It started when he found a soldier’s memorial given to his great grandfather when he was discharged.

Goff realized his relation was a fearless union hero who fought in this nation’s bloodiest battles to preserve the union. It was a proud historical trail. Goff’s research led him to a small graveyard with a tombstone with had his great grandfather on the wrong side of history.  “Confederate States of America,” Goff said pointing to the confederate tombstone, “They got it wrong.”

Video and the reaminder of the article continue on ABC 2 news.  Click on link.  Great grandson rewrites Civil War wrong; government to issue correct tombstone.

As a year filled with exciting events celebrating the 150^th anniversary of Rising Sun draws to a close, a new book about the event and the community’s past just came off the press.  This commemorative volume, Rising Sun, MD 150th Anniversary, is loaded with informative articles that chronicle the town’s past and features stories about its people, businesses and organizations.

“In putting together this commemorative book, we have tried to bridge the gap between the Centennial Book time frame and the Sesquicentennial time frame,” Mayor Sandi Didra recalled an earlier title that was published in 1960.  “We have also summarized much of the material from the first book.”

It was a large task to produce this attractive work.  But for nearly a year writers and photographers have been reaching out to residents to gather information for the volume.  Speaking of that challenge, Ed Belote, the publisher said:  “. . . . A massive amount of human effort was invested in putting this book together and we have all become a part of Rising Sun history.  Fifty years from now, when our children and grandchildren come together to create the 20t0h anniversary celebration book for Rising Sun, I hope they have as much fun doing it as we had.”    

This attractively illustrated limited edition volume loaded with original local content is something we’ll keep proudly at hand in our library.  The title retails for $20 and is available from the Historical Society and Sun Pharmacy, as well as at other locations.