Bergton local Dr. Linford Gehman graduated from high school in the early 1950s. Much like many recent high school graduates today, the then 18-year-old Gehman was unsure about what to study in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know what I wanted to do,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n
Gehman decided to take a break before pursing a degree, and spent the next two years working at a porcelain plant in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
However, before he could decide on a career path, Gehman was drafted into the Korean War. As a member of the Mennonite Church, he was granted status as a conscientious objector, and was assigned alternative service at a veteran\u2019s mental hospital on Long Island, N.Y.<\/p>\n
\u201cI assisted with the care of the residents,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI provided for their meals, their toiletries, bathing \u2014 things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
After two years of helping the doctors, nurses and patients, Gehman had a clear vision of his own future.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point, I felt I could be of service to people by becoming a physician,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With a clear goal in mind, he enrolled at Eastern Mennonite University \u2014 graduating four years later with a degree in pre-med. He continued his education at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and eventually completed an internship and residency at St. Luke\u2019s Hospital in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s where I met my future wife,\u201d he said, smiling, adding that she worked as an obstetrics nurse.<\/p>\n
The couple had a long courtship \u2014 due to Gehman\u2019s decision to volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee \u2014 they would wait seven years to be married.<\/p>\n
Despite the time apart from his loved ones, Gehman felt called to serve with the MCC \u2014 which he says is an \u201cagency that helps to take care of refugees or persons in countries that have great need.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI always took an interest in programs overseas,\u201d he explained. \u201cI was influenced in part by other physicians who had served.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1965, Gehman was sent to serve at a hospital in Nha Trang \u2014 a coastal city in Vietnam. With the help of an interpreter, he treated a variety of medical issues-including tuberculosis, malaria, cataracts and respiratory disorders.<\/p>\n
During his three and half years in the city, Gehman recalls how the Vietnam War slowly affected the hospital staff more frequently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first [arrived], I could travel almost anywhere I wanted,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThen, the war gradually built up and after that, travel was limited.\u201d<\/p>\n
After he returned from Vietnam, the MCC immediately offered him another volunteer opportunity in Nigeria, which was ravaged by civil war. Gehman agreed to go and spent a turbulent year in the southern part of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was forced to treat things surgically that I had only assisted with as an intern or a resident,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n
After a marketplace was bombed, he remembers operating on limbs with \u201ca textbook on one side and the anesthesiologists on the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gehman said he stayed calm by focusing on the singular task at hand, and credits his assisting staff for their service.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had good assistants I could rely on in the operating room,\u201d he praised.<\/p>\n
Although the work was challenging, he considered it a \u201crewarding\u201d experience, and has no regrets about going on either trip.<\/p>\n
After returning from Nigeria, he married Becky and settled in the Bergton area, where he still practices.<\/p>\n
After decades of working as a doctor, some might ask why the 80-year-old physician doesn\u2019t want to retire \u2014 but for Gehman, the answer is simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat keeps me practicing medicine here is the tremendous relationships I have with my patients,\u201d he explained. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m still working.\u201d<\/p>\n