University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
The Messenger
Vol. 5, No. 1/1995
Physician has no reservations about move

     Dr. Perry Mitchell, Delaware '70, made a telephone call in
1992 that would change his life.
     The Newark, Del., physician was looking for a short-term
volunteer position that would use his medical skills while he was
on a month-long hiatus from his family practice. His call to the
U.S. Public Health Service led to an assignment on a Native
American reservation in Tuba City, Ariz.
     He so enjoyed the experience that two years later, Mitchell
and his wife, Brenda Jaquette Mitchell, Delaware '70, and their
children moved to Arizona so he could practice medicine at a
clinic on a large Navaho reservation near Winslow. He also serves
on the staff of the 30-bed Winslow Memorial Hospital.
     For many of the 200,000 Native Americans on the reservation,
a trip to the doctor means a 60-mile-or-more drive over sometimes
impassable dirt roads.
     The people Mitchell cares for, many of whom are sheep
herders, live quiet, simple lives, and their cultural beliefs are
reflected in their attitudes about modern medicine.
     "In many ways, they show more appreciation for the natural
coming and going of life. Sometimes, I feel like people on the
East Coast think that, no matter what the illness is, modern
medicine can make it better. That belief is not nearly as
prevalent here," Mitchell says.
     He calls his new patients, 20 percent of whom speak only
Navaho, "wonderful." "They are warm and friendly. They have a
good sense of humor and are very patient. I have learned from
them," he says.
     Many live in poverty. Half of the reservation's
residents do not have plumbing systems. Many live without
electricity. More than 80 percent of the residents do not have
telephones.
     This can pose challenges in treating patients. Without
electricity, patients can't be given medications that need
refrigeration or medical equipment that needs to be plugged in.
One patient Mitchell treated for sleep apnea plugged his
breathing machine into the battery of his truck at night. Others
use generators for power.
     Mitchell says he misses his friends and colleagues in
Delaware, but he doesn't miss the headaches that accompanied
owning a practice.
     "As the years went by, I was spending more time being a
businessman and less and less time being a doctor," he says.
"This was an opportunity to get back to practicing medicine."
     Mitchell says he moved because he wanted new
challenges. "I'm meeting people from a completely different
culture, and that's really great," he says. "This was a chance to
do something different, a chance to take care of people who don't
have very much. There hasn't been anything disappointing about
this. It's been exactly as you might expect-rewarding and fun."
                                   -Marylee Sauder, Delaware '83