Beloved pediatrician retires after more than 40 years of service to Bakersfield
| Wednesday, Jul 01 2009 05:58 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Jul 01 2009 06:10 PM
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Jenn Ireland / The Californian Dr. Sue Poh stands in a children's exam room next to a wall full of photos of her patients in the downtown office that she has shared with two other doctors for many years. Dr. Poh is retiring this week from years of working as a pediatrician in Bakersfield and says that she will miss her work, and her patients, very much.
Jenn Ireland / The Californian Dr. Sue Poh stands in a children's exam room in the downtown office that she has shared with two other doctors for many years. Dr. Poh is retiring this week from years of working as a pediatrician in Bakersfield and says that she will miss her work, and her patients, very much.
It's impossible to hide from Dr. Sue Poh's patients.
The pediatrician has worked in Bakersfield for more than 40 years. She has seen countless young patients, many of whom continue to go to her even when they may be considered too old to see a children's doctor.
About a quarter of her current patients, Poh estimated, are children of former patients.
"I haven't met someone who didn't know someone who has been under her care," said Dr. Suresh Kumari, who has worked with Poh for 28 years. "Anyplace you go, you can't hide from Dr. Poh's patients."
But now the 78-year-old Poh is retiring, leaving behind those hundreds of patients and their parents who have come to trust her.
"She cares, and she makes that personal touch," said Jill Ogle, who saw Poh as a child and now brings her son, Christopher. "She makes the kids feel special. She's a godsend."
Poh said she wanted to be a doctor since she was a child. "I felt like I probably could do more to help people that way," she said.
She left her native Thailand right after high school to study medicine at Loma Linda University, where she graduated in 1961.
She moved to Bakersfield in 1966 and worked at Kern Medical Center until 1974. She's been in private practice ever since.
But now she's ready to retire. Poh said she's been having trouble with her feet. Plus, her son has for a while urged her to retire so she can spend more time with family.
"I've been here a long time," she said. "I'm ready to take a rest."
She said she hasn't really thought about what she'll do now, but she predicts she won't have much free time.
After all, she may still be answering questions from colleagues.
"I asked her, 'Can I still call you? You have to tell me what to do and not to do,'" Kumari said, adding that she sought advice from Poh even before they worked at the same practice.
"I'm still picking her brain," Kumari said. "She always provided nothing but tremendous support."
Poh's last full day seeing patients was Tuesday, but work's not over yet.
She'll still call patients' families with the results of recently conducted tests, something she's been doing her entire career.
"I always have called them myself. That way I can express my opinion," she said. "I feel it's my responsibility."
It is the patients that she will miss the most, Poh said. In her office she has bulletin boards filled with Christmas cards, letters, school pictures, all sent from current and former patients.
"They're just like part of my family," she said. "I feel privileged, and I feel good about what I do."
