Peter Roessler & Mark Calkins

Richard Vizcarra, MD

Probably, all the sections presented today could be covered solely by Kelly and Evan, because Richard was truly a friend to everyone.  This crowd is representative of Richard’s ability to attract and retain friendships.  Whether professional colleagues, old acquaintances, auto mechanics, home theater technicians, who ever, if you ran into Richard, chances are you became friends.  We had the good fortune of sharing our medical practice with Richard for the past several years.  We will present our feelings coming from colleagues, but you’ll have to forgive us because we will inevitably tend towards an outlook as friends.

As you know, have heard, and will hear today, Richard was a good guy.  He was very smart and a hard worker.  In his medical practice he was all these things and more.  He was technically skilled.  He made difficult decisions quickly and correctly.  He took very good care of his patients.  Richard was quick to help any one of us when we had trouble.  He taught me little tricks and subtleties.  He also accepted help when necessary.  He asked questions.  He did his job extremely well and he always smiled doing it.

Patients liked to see that smile.  Richard was the exact person that I would want to take care of me.  First, he was concerned about doing the right thing for every patient.  He was very conscientious about every aspect of each patient’s operation.  He stood up to some pretty powerful people when it came to doing the right thing. Second, he was very humble.  To me that is the person you want to care for you, because he or she is someone who isn’t afraid to ask for help when they need it.  But that doesn’t not mean that Richard was not smart.  He was very intelligent.  I would often ask for his opinion regarding difficult cases.  He also had the uncanny ability of recognizing situations where help might be needed.  He would approach me and gently ask, in a non-condescending manner, if I needed anything.  He was very willing to get his hands dirty and help out.  Richard was very skilled at what he did.  He worked very hard.  He enjoyed what he did.

Richard possessed an wonderful sense of humor.  His wit was very sharp but always kind and gentle.  He came up with nicknames; “x-box boy”, “crash test dummy” and many others which are better saved for another occasion. 

1.         Richard spent several days in the hospital during the early part of his disease, when his primary symptom was double vision.  He jokingly told us that his disease wasn’t so bad, and in fact it had some benefits.  He elaborated by telling us about his very attractive nurse and how he got to see twice as much of her.

2.         Over the 3 days he spent in the hospital he would become bored lying in his hospital bed and would wonder down to the OR to visit.  Dressed for success in his sweat pants and hospital gown he showed up for drug rep sponsored lunch.  The drug rep recognized Richard and asked what was the matter.  Rather that give a medical differential diagnosis, like most of us would, Richard simply responded, “Let me put it this way, there are 2 of you!”  No elaboration was forthcoming, and we all enjoyed lunch.

Richard was always someone you could count on.  He was a GREAT partner.  Even when we held opposite opinions, never was there a problem.  He was passionate, loyal and had a tendency to get a little fired up about things he felt were important.  We knew we could count on him to back us up when issues arose. He could always come up with a great angle to deal with some difficult situations.  We would then have to tone down the approach a little (he could get pretty fired up about certain issues-as anyone who has ever been around Richard when a political discussion was involved).

So far we have all stressed Richard’s many wonderful qualities.  These are all true.  However, in the interest of fairness, we feel compelled mention some of Richard’s ‘other’ qualities.  All of us have peculiar idiosyncrasies and Richard did too.  We feel compelled to divulge a few of Richard’s.

1.         First of all, you all probably noticed that Richard was not a tall man.  Vern Usher claims that one reason he adamantly wanted Richard in the group was so that Vern would no longer be the shortest partner.  I guess being the shortest AND the oldest was too much for Vern.  (By the way, Carole, Vern appreciates you a lot.) It turns out that Dave, Richard’s Air Force buddy let us in on another interesting tidbit.  I’m sure you noticed Richard’s flight suit this morning.  Dave tells me that all the pilots’ helmets get scratched up when they fly in helicopters because of the low ceiling.  Dave and I looked at Richard’s helmet and were amazed that there was not the slightest imperfection.  Dave understood immediately….”Oh I get it, Rich was too short to have his helmet hit the ceiling!”

In fact, my partner here, would often play a little joke on poor Richard.  When Richard was going to do cases in Mark’s operating room, Mark would raise the iv pole as high as it could go, so that Richard could not reach the top!   This sequence of candid photos was taken to demonstrate Mark’s technique of trying to aggravate Richard.  By the way, Mark always failed, Richard never got aggravated! 

2.         Richard had an uncontrollable urge to assist the person in charge of the daily surgical schedule.  We have a fairly complex system of assigning staff to cases and Richard seemed unable to stay away from these decisions.  We therefore have created the “Richard J. Vizcarra, MD” memorial plaque with the following inscription “Richard, please step away from the board.”

3.         Richard brought a new meaning to the 1990’s phrase “day trader.”  Somehow, as the day would progress, Richard, who may well have started as “post-call, first one out”, would end up “first-call, last one out.”  We rarely understood how this came to be, but he always made trades with partners while staying within our system rules.  He was not out to take advantage of anyone.  But if someone wanted/needed to get out, Richard was your man.   He just plain liked working hard.  This photo shows a typical work day at PAMC. 

Notice here that the distribution of the cases seems odd.  Richard is working until midnight , while the rest of us are finished by 9am .  When Charlene and the girls would bring him dinner or just visit we realized he had a pretty good thing going!!

4.         Richard’s uncanny ability to manage his day, extended to an ability to understand the fine points of our monthly schedule. As this picture shows, our work schedule was somewhat complicated.

My wife, Kathy, would ask me to get a seemingly impossible day off.  Stumped, I would ask Richard who in 5 minutes could come up with a simple 5 way trade, which invariably worked.  We are pretty sure that Richards wheeling and dealing skills would have been an asset to any MLB team seeking BOTH Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez.

5.         Richard claimed to be technologically challenged.  He assured us that if we came up with some computerized billing system, we should have him try it.  If the self professed “crash test dummy” could do it, then anybody could.  Using a computer and MP3 player also seemingly taxed his little brain.  Interestingly, when I asked Richard about a home theater system, Richard proceeded to give a PhD dissertation on the virtues of lcd vs. plasma screen tvs, various gauges of monster cable, and the interdependence of audio wave fidelity and frequency response of different speaker technologies.  Don’t even get him started on the advantages of cooking on his ultra-hi tech outdoor grill.  He would routinely go OFF on the thermodynamic benefits of ceramic as opposed to cast iron heating elements and the increased radiant heat transfer when using a glass energy dispersion plane. Some “dummy”.  When Mark and I came up with a very simple, user friendly system for tabulating our OR productivity, Richard claimed to be “intimidated” by this set-up.  Here it is.

            In retrospect, he probably knew we were nuts and didn’t have the heart to tell us…..Incidentally, Richard was also an automotive genius who dreamed of “enhancing” his little S2000.  I always questioned his sanity when he discussed superchargers, sway bars, roll cages and racing slicks for that car.  Richard’s hunting gear was also legendary.  From his back patio using his hunting scope, I once diagnosed dandruff on a cow that lived about a mile away!!!!  He loved his collection of remote controlled vehicles, and brought a new and scary meaning to the phrase “aftermarket modification.”  Sorry to break this to you, but Richard was no “crash test dummy”.

6.         Curiously, in further contrast with the “crash test dummy” mentality, observe Richard’s anesthesia equipment cart. 

Note the precision wiring, organization of all supplies and the quick access to anything he might need.  In fact, when both of us were upgrading our carts, Richard gleefully played “cart consultant” and greatly improved our situations.

7.         Richard’s cart is also a symbol of something more important.  We call it the “Lauren/Zeta Shrine.”

He was constantly adding new pictures of the girls.   We were curious what would happen when he ran out of space.  Would he get a trailer-cart or what?  With every added photo, our cart inferiority complex worsened. Mark had to go out and buy a sub-woofer just to try to keep up!  There was no doubt that Richard loved his family.   The only way Richard EVER made me feel bad was by doing things better than I did.

Richard was all of these great things.  Alone that is quite an accomplishment. He was great husband, a great father, a great friend, and a great colleague. But there is more. You see, Richard was all these great things while he was well.  AND he was all these things when he was ill. To the very end there was no complaining, though few have ever had better reason to complain. In fact, as his illness progressed, when he was barely able to speak, Laurens Johansen expressed his sorrow to Richard.  Richard struggled to respond with a single word “…laugh…”  His life and death are a celebration of the best that we can ever hope for.  We all were lucky to experienced the grace, courage and dignity of a truly great person.

This great person attracted great people, and you all are those great people; a testament to Richard’s power as a human being.

In compiling this presentation, we gathered thoughts and memories of Richard from many people.  The good ones we plagiarized for our own benefit.  Perhaps the best words came from Chuck Cook addressed directly to Richard

 “Richard, Your final gift to us is to bring a new awareness of life, a higher consciousness of friendship and the beauty of the earth around. I stood on our porch the other morning and breathed deep of the fresh air and looked over the land in the light of dawn. I stood for a moment and said, thank you Richard, for helping me remember that I have this day in front of me, may I live it to the fullest, and may the people I love, know they are loved before the sun sets tonight.

You will long be honored in our memories.”

Peter Roessler & Mark Calkins