Chester County Medicine Fall 2019 - 28

www.CHESTERCMS.org

A Letter to
the Editor
BY DONALD E. HARROP, MD

Board of Health at that time. Our county commissioners and some
other local politicians were vehemently opposed, saying it would
cost too much. But we physicians got together, with excellent
leadership from Doctors Bob Poole, Bill Limberger, and others, we
were able to put it on a county wide ballot. To everyone's surprise
the doctors were successful. The people voted to form the Chester
County Health Department and even political leaders had to agree.
Look at what we have today - an outstanding, well respected
department. Again, we doctors ought to be proud!

read with such interest the article in the summer issue of Chester
County Medicine by Dr. Christina VandePol, our elected Chester
County Coroner. It got me to reminisce about the many contributions our physicians and the Chester County Medical Society
gave freely to our county, and its citizens. Happily, I thought we
ought to remember some of them. Having been a member of the
medical society since 1957, you'll have to forgive my errors and I've
asked our CCMS staff to help me out a little; with no computer,
dictaphone, or secretary at my disposal, it's a challenge.

It was early in the 1960s when Dr. Sabin perfected his
breathtaking oral polio vaccine even before the more popular Salk
injectable vaccine. It was a few drops of the vaccine, put on sugar
cubes given at two week intervals. What did we do? All of the
physicians in the county under the leadership of the County Medical
Society made the vaccine available for FREE to every person in
the county and all parties cooperated. The schools opened their
facilities to us at no charge on three alternate Sundays. Our spouses
pitched in as did our office staffs. Those of us who had treated
polio victims just couldn't believe how everyone came and helped.
Voluntary contributions were accepted (but not demanded). With
the excess of funds after expenses the Medical Society set up the
Horace Darlington Memorial Scholarship which still exists after
50 years to help medical students from the county to further their
education in medicine.
The next thing that comes to mind is the creation of our County
Health Department. When the state law was passed that counties
could opt out of the state systems and form their own countywide
departments, our county physicians jumped at the chance. We had
no real health department, I know, I was serving on the Phoenixville

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Let me wind up with the Coroner's office. The office was once
run by funeral directors and the two that preceded me were a
house painter and an undertaker's assistant. At that time the only
qualification to hold the office was an age requirement - the coroner
must be eighteen years of age. In addition to problems we had a
couple of murders in the county that were grossly mishandled. I
was asked to be the first physician in modern times to run for the
office. I even had primary opposition from a West Chester funeral
director who thought it was "his turn."
Someday I will write more on that subject, my experience in
trying to professionalize the office, etc. My primary reason for
continuing the epistle is to remind the physicians in this county that
even with the changes in medicine today, with no truly nonprofit
hospitals (truly nonprofit) you can be the leaders.
We all read Dr. VandePol's article and noted how our county is
growing. With this growth, we need to provide active physician
leadership on a number of important issues including establishing
a proper facility to continue to professionalize the Coroner's Office.
Our CCMS should certainly support these upgrades! In the 1980s
the political leaders of Delaware and Chester counties tried to do
this but there were major problems as to who would pay for it all.
Needless to say, it died the usual political death.
Will the county medical society help lead the project? We might
consider forming a group to investigate. It won't be easy and this
will take some time to accomplish. Dr. VandePol is right, let's get
together with her and the medical community and do something!
We need it!
Dr. Harrop served as Chester County Coroner
1966 -1990, as well as the President of the Pennsylvania
Medical Society (1988). He also served as Founder and
President of KePRO from 1985 - 2001.

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Chester County Medicine Fall 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chester County Medicine Fall 2019