Word: balthazar
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Free Expertise. For the first two years, Balthazar and his wife-who has since died of cancer-spent $30,000 of their own money to keep the clinic going. Now he has reluctantly agreed to a fund drive in Aurora to help meet expenses. Other help has come forward...
...Balthazar's rent for the town-owned building is only $1 a year. Fellow physicians and pharmaceutical firms contribute drugs and vitamins. Local specialists often provide free expertise in cases that General Practitioner Balthazar feels he cannot handle alone...
...when the clinic is closed, he asks the parents to bring the child to his house. Though his main emphasis is on the ailing, he does not balk at providing free school physicals and shots for youngsters who cannot afford them. In only two areas does Roman Catholic Balthazar draw the line: he will not dispense birth control pills or perform abortions...
...Balthazar's good works have not gone unnoticed. A few months ago, his alma mater, Loyola University School of Medicine, gave him its esteemed Stritch Medal (previous winners include Heart Transplanter Christiaan Barnard and Astronaut-Physician Joseph Kerwin). The citation called him "a beacon for others in his profession and a promise of hope." Also, a film has been made about his storefront clinic by a group at Southern Illinois University...
...scrubbing floors, washing windows, even baking casseroles for his lunch. In fact, when a woman patient recently sued him for malpractice (because of a scar left by the successful treatment of a facial malignancy), other patients were incensed. "Around here," said one, "suing Dr. Bal is like suing God." Balthazar, who refuses to carry malpractice insurance, easily won his case...