By Cheryl Smith
I don’t know how many patients love their doctors, but I loved Dr. William Glaze. From the very first visit to his office, I was in love.
Here was a brilliant doctor, who had a compassionate demeanor and was spiritually grounded. And his bedside manner was professional and impeccable and made me feel like he cared about my well-being.
There were a few occasions when I saw everything that made him special. One time he was called on the carpet because instead of a hysterectomy, he performed a myomectomy. The difference is that in my early 30s, I would still be able to have children. He gave me a chance, unlike so many of his colleagues who for centuries have violated the Hippocratic Oath and instead were hypocrites who should have been imprisoned.
Now, you may not recall the stories of doctors performing surgeries that were not medically necessary, but this has also happened during your lifetime.
As recently as 2020 in Virginia, Dr. Javaid Perwaiz, an obstetrician-gynecologist, was found guilty of among other charges, performing “unnecessary, invasive medical procedures.”
In Michigan, a cancer doctor, Dr. Vinay Malviya, a long- time gynecological oncologist abused his patients.
Talk about genocide. You may not have heard of the term, “Mississippi Appendectomy,” but I hope you have heard of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer who had plenty of reasons to be sick and tired, and one was the non-consensual sterilization of poor and Black women.
She coined that phrase because she knew the value of the Black woman was devalued.
The numbers are startling and I am so glad that I had a caring doctor in my life. Then later, as I dealt with blood clots, he told me how doctors who consulted on my case opted out of going into the operating room with him.
When I asked why, he told me that they didn’t think I would make it out of surgery because once the procedure began, they thought a blood clot would travel and end my life.
He, being the spiritually focused and faithful man of God, went into the operating room and saved my life.
That was 22 years ago!
He also trusted me with his daughter, Veronica, who participated in a journalism program with me, traveling to Seattle for the Unity Journalists of Color Convention. The love I received from him, his wife Sheila who also was his office manager, and Veronica warms my heart, decades later.
I remember when he retired and closed down his office. I was devastated.
I knew he was also the physician for Dallas County’s jail, so I considered committing a crime (a minor one) to get in, feign sickness, and receive care from Dr. Glaze.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price just laughed at me when I told him my plan. He knew from protest days that I needed to find another way to see my beloved doctor.
And I did.
I tracked Dr. Glaze down at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center Clinic and found out he saw patients once a week there, and I did what I needed to do to get to see him.
You see, I knew a good thing when I saw it and I held on as long as I could.
The feeling in the pit of my stomach, as I celebrated his life last weekend, is not one I relish having.
It hurts. Here was someone who was so good to me and now he is gone.
I wish everyone could experience a doctor like the one I had!
All I can say is “Thank you, Dr. Glaze.”
