The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1984, Qupperneq 16

14
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SUMMER, 1984
At 88, Dr. P. H. T. (Thor) Thorlakson is
still a competitive, formidable figure, re-
luctantly leaving the field of medicine to
those who have the youthful vigor and
talent to try to match his vast array of
accomplishments.
A middle-aged doctor refers to him in
awe as “the godfather.”
He quit practising at 80 but still enjoys
driving to the office or taking Gladys, his
wife of 63 years, for a drive.
Two of his major accomplishments —
the enduring design of the Winnipeg Clinic
and the burgeoning Health Sciences Centre
— are only the iceberg tips of his contri-
butions to health care in Manitoba.
Fifty years ago, he envisioned the clinic
as a Mayo of Manitoba and conceived the
idea of grouping the medical college and
the old Winnipeg General Hospital as a
medical centre. He promptly set out to
make it all happen.
As a teacher at the college, he passed on
his surgical skills.
Thorlakson, whose twin sons, Robert and
Ken, are surgeons, had a career rewarded
with friendships of such notables as the late
Sir Frederick Banting, co-discoverer of
insulin.
He has been mantled with honors from
universities, his profession, country and
Iceland, home of his forefathers.
Still tall and straight, he is proof that
you can take health into retirement.
He deplores “self-induced sickness,
the appalling moral and financial cost of
drinking and driving, drug abuse and the
elderly who turn to alcohol and smoke
carelessly, setting themselves on fire or
taking medication over and over.”
Thorlakson was bom in Park River,
N.D., son of a Lutheran minister who
moved his family to Selkirk in 1920 and
served there for 27 years.
He says the Health Sciences Centre
will continue to grow because of rapid
changes in new technology.
“Specialties have increased because of
the knowledge now easily available.
“GPs (general practitioners) have be-
come specialized in their own right through
their preparations in post graduate work.
“Once you could enter medical college
after high school but today the pre-med
requirement is better preparation.
“I don’t think the concept of family
practice, where the doctor has a complete
family as patients, is possible in a large
centre.
“Today, young people are too inde-
pendent and you will find family members
have different doctors,” the clinic founder
says.
The medical statesman, who started col-
lege in 1914 and left after two years to
serve overseas in the First World War,
came back to graduate in 1919.
He says a family often had to sacrifice as
the eldest son was put through medical
school, adding that today the profession is
attainable to all by grant, bursary or scholar-
ship, if students achieve adequate marks.
Although fathers, sons, daughters,
brothers and sisters are in the profession,
he said it is not a preserve of the upper
middle class.
Thorlakson doesn’t share the view that
the image of doctors has been tarnished
because of confrontations between the
profession and politicians.
“No doubt there has to be some gov-
ernment involvement but unfortunately the
government has taken a commanding posi-
tion on control of medical practice,” he
says.
“A good doctor has a special place in a
family, just as a lawyer or preacher has.
“I like to think of doctors as people and
people don’t change that much.”
— Courtesy of the Winnipeg
Free Press, November 26,
1983.