To Heal and to Teach

Julie, a tiny woman, showed up at the clinic in Haiti in desperate trouble.

The 9-pound baby she was carrying had died in her womb. The baby was too big for the woman to deliver vaginally, and labor had forced the baby into a position where a Caesarean section was no longer possible. If the baby remained in place much longer, infection would develop, and the woman would die.

Dr. Bill Petty of Winston-Salem, a member of an American medical team, had gone to Haiti in September to provide care in the aftermath of four severe storms -- tropical storms Fay and Hanna and hurricanes Gustav and Ike -- that hit Haiti during a three-week period. Faced with the possible loss of his patient, Petty remembered a five-minute conversation during his medical training when a doctor talked about a technique for a situation such as Julie's. Petty tried it, and it worked.

Julie survived.

She was all smiles when she returned for checkups at the clinic where Petty and the rest of his medical team saw more than 2,000 patients in three weeks. "She went through so much pain, with the fear of dying," Petty said. "She was happy."

In Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Petty dealt mostly with injuries and illnesses related to the storms and to grinding poverty. The storms left much of the country flooded and 80 percent of the homes damaged or destroyed. Petty treated malaria, pneumonia, stomach inflammations and malnutrition. He sewed up severe cuts and administered medicine for pinworms.

He marveled at the resilience of a people whose hard lives had been made harder by disaster. Where he worked, near the coastal city of Gonaives, a river that was normally 8 feet wide broadened to several hundred feet and raged for three days.

"People who survived the hurricane were taking people in, pulling people onto their roofs," he said. "They would have 50 to 60 people on a roof. People were bringing in children who weren't related to them."

He overheard a woman talking who had taken in a child whose parents had drowned in the flooding. The parents were the woman's neighbors, she said, and she was obliged to help.

"Their sense of community and obligation is so beautiful," he said. "They were not down in the mouth, even though they lost their homes. They were stoic and positive."

Petty, who trained in obstetrics and gynecology, has made it his mission to serve the poor and the needy throughout his medical career. Now 67, he teaches part time at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and volunteers at the Community Care Center, which provides health care to the uninsured and underserved.

He performed his first mission work soon after he graduated from high school in California, when he helped convert an old house into a Navajo community center. He learned about the Navajos from the head of the mission and became interested in anthropology. Since then, he has taken many opportunities to travel to developing countries, learning to teach and communicate with people in his soft, gentle voice.

Over the years, he has done construction work in Mexico and offered gynecological care in Honduras. He has taught laparoscopic techniques and tubal sterilization to doctors in Colombia, the Philippines and India, where he has made eight trips. He has worked in Africa -- Kenya, Uganda, Gabon and Mali. Last March, he spent a week at a medical clinic in Haiti. In September, he had just returned from six weeks in Mali when the call came to return to Haiti.

Petty felt good about the work he did there, but his favorite thing is to go to underdeveloped countries and teach local doctors.

A friend, Brian Haskell, is the worship director at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, where Petty is a member.

"He is one of the most committed Christians and tenderest souls I've ever met," Haskell said. He said that Petty follows an old idea of mission work that comes from a Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Petty does the same thing, only with medicine, Haskell said. Petty helps when he provides medical care. But when he teaches others how to provide that care, "he has planted a much more significant seed in the culture."

The father of three and the grandfather of five, Petty enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren. He and his wife moved to Winston-Salem in 2005 from Oregon to be near their sons, John and Jeff, who are both doctors at the medical center. His daughter, Christine, lives in England with her family.

He doesn't care much for hobbies, he said. "I'm not good at golf or tennis." He would rather spend his time helping the sick and the poor, both abroad and at home. "I just really love medicine," he said. That's why he volunteers at the Community Care Center.

"It's giving to the poor," he said, "and they need it."

■ Janice Gaston can be reached at 727-7364 or at jgaston@wsjournal.com.

About Bill Petty

• Age: 67.

• Hometown/Birthplace: Pittsburgh.

• Education: Graduated from the University of Oregon; graduated from St. Louis University School of Medicine; internship and residency at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Calif.; two-year training in oncology and gynecology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

• Experience: Taught at the University of Oregon Medical School, worked in private practice, currently teaching part time at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

• Family: Wife Evelyn and three children.

• Quote/Philosophy: "I really feel it's important to serve the poorest of the poor, which are in developing countries. They have no options to help themselves. It's equally important to train those doctors in those countries so they can better help the people that they care for."