Dr. Tongwarin: 38-Year Career Brought Unprecedented Caring To Women's Health
When Dr. Manu Tongwarin sits in Anders Gymnasium at the Du Quoin High School to watch the basketball Indians play he smiles and can say to himself, "I think I delivered everyone in here."
That's close.
During a great 38-year medical career that ends in retirement on Dec. 18 he delivered over 3,000 children. That's half the population of Du Quoin.
And between the start of his practice here in 1974 and the closure of Marshall Browning Hospital's obstetrics unit in 1997 he did it with an unprecedented caring.
Today, he champions women's health from the East Franklin Street office he opened after only three years in practice in Du Quoin. The office became so busy in the early going he remembers that retired Chief of Police Ken DeMent at the time had to install "Two Hour Parking" signs out front.
He smiles at being responsible for hundreds of pictures of our children taped to the doors of our refrigerators. For the footsteps coming down the steps on a Christmas morning. And, for the sounds of children crying in church.
It's all good.
He mirrors the belief that "The birth of a child is God's message for mankind to continue." He is so proud of his part in this miracle.
What makes Dr. Tongwarin so remarkable is that he has never tired of the medicine or of being part of the lives of Du Quoin-area residents. He said of his 23-year obstetrics practice, "I feel great that everything is okay. All the excitement."
During those years he relied on his obstetrics nurse Brenda Jones and the staff at Marshall Browning Hospital. "But I always want to check them myself," he insisted.
Dr. Tongwarin's office hours at the hospital were 7 a.m. in the morning, 3:45 p.m., 7:25 p.m, 1:35 a.m. or 3 a.m. He was always there. "You never get used to it," he smiles. But, you could never forgive something going wrong and that belief is what guided his career.
He is 67 years old and could certainly do it all again if he had to. With a hint of his captivating Thai dialect behind that smile, he says, "Oh, I am sure there are some of my patients crying that I am retiring." He tried to retire in June, but his patients kept telling him not to and that he didn't give them enough time.
There would never be enough time.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s there were a lot of international medical students coming to America to practice. Dr. Tongwarin got his medical training from what was then a new medical school in Thailand. He remembers a team of 10 doctors and clinicians from the University of Illinois coming to Thailand to talk to medical students about careers in medicine. Dr. Tongwarin came to the United States and studied for three years at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, one of the best teaching hospitals in the world.
It was finally Pinckneyville Community Hospital's Dr. Amnuay Sethakorn (who left that hospital in 1987) who encouraged Dr. Tongwarin, in his words, "To come on down."
He interviewed with then-hospital administrator Ray Mullins and they reached an agreement.
"I thought I would be in Du Quoin three years," he said.
Dr. Tongwarin would practice from an office at Marshall Browning Hospital before opening his own office three years later. He has never thought about leaving Du Quoin.
"I feel very comfortable here."
For years the hospital has kept a wire bassinet from an early nursery in the original building when mothers were required to stay in the hospital for 10 days.
Dr. Tongwarin found the basic tools he needed, but went on a mission to improve the technology, equipping a modern delivery room with things like ultrasound equipment and a fetal monitor. "Times change."
In 38 years of practicing medicine he saw only one errant malpractice case. "The child was born healthy and has grown up healthy." Dr. Tongwarin won the case.
Dr. Tongwarin maintains that malpractice law is a double-edged sword. "It keeps doctors on their toes and makes them continue their training," he said. In the rare gross negligence cases where a doctor didn't do his job it provides a remedy for families. But, on the other side, he said, it has become predatory and that attorneys benefit more than the families.
The ultra sound used in his own office along with a colposcope used to find cervic tumors will be gifted and shipped to a small hospital in Thailand after his retirement.
Dr. Tongwarin said strikes in the Perry County coalfields during the 1980s with many miners stuck at home contributed more to a growing population than anything during his career. "Nine months after a strike we were busy at the hospital day and night," he remembers.
In Du Quoin, Dr. Tongwarin and wife Vinapan have raised three children--Ann, Art and Mike--all success stories themselves. They have two grandchildren.
In retirement he hopes to encourage his children and grandchildren to embrace the future, while learning some of the culture that gave him the discipline, work ethic and determination to succeed. His mother and father have passed away. One brother and one sister have passed away. He has four living sisters
He doesn't ever plan to return to Thailand to live and knows that his Americanized children will never want to either, but that doesn't keep him from giving back to the culture he came from.
He will stay in Du Quoin in retirement, but hopes to spend two or three months during the winter every year or two in Thailand helping many of the small mountainous communities grow their medical aptitude. These few lines only touch on the career of a great man and the great love the community has for him and his family.