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It Was a ‘Heady Time’ in the Oval Office

2004; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 26; Issue: 13 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/00132981-200401000-00032

1552-3624

Anne Scheck,

Health and Conflict Studies

It's the kind of house call very few physicians ever get to make. And Robert Darling, MD, was the very first one in emergency medicine granted the privilege to make it. As holder of the title “White House physician” from 1996 to 1999, he provided medical care for a president during one of the more tumultuous terms of recent history: Bill Clinton. “He was so personable, a very likable man,” recalled Dr. Darling, who reflects back on the period as a “heady time” for him, even though his own political views didn't necessarily coincide with those of his commander-in-chief. Still, he recalls with obvious fondness his time with the leader of the free world, to whom he administered an allergy shot every morning during duty periods. “The president was not a morning person,” Dr. Darling said, noting that the president usually made a groggy entrance into the shower each morning to wake up. Yet Clinton was always cheerful and polite, “How's your wife doing, Rob?'” he would query or, “Hey there, Doc. How are ya?” If all this sounds like a dream come true for a young physician, the dream came differently and much earlier for Dr. Darling. All he ever wanted to be was a doctor. He had no idea he would end up on Pennsylvania Avenue instead of in an office somewhere. One of five children born to a construction worker, “we weren't poor,” but the cost of medical school was out of the question. “There was just no way unless I got some big-time scholarships,” he said. After graduating cum laude from Adelphi University in 1981, he was admitted to several medical schools. But only one — Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences — offered him the advantage of a full ride. In exchange, Dr. Darling agreed to take a commission, a decision that meant he would spend several years on active duty. Smart Decision Looking back, he thinks it was one of the smartest decisions he ever made. In 1987, after he completed Naval Flight Surgeon School, he was assigned to care for a large seaborne population, namely thousands of sailors aboard an aircraft carrier. “The deck [on an aircraft carrier] is a good place to learn about medicine,” Dr. Darling observed. Cables snapped, floors pitched, planes skidded. He learned everything from instant trauma measures to exotic infectious diseases aboard the carriers, he said.Figure: Dr. Darling posed with the White House Medical Staff and the Clintons in the Oval Office.Figure: Email between former President Clinton and John Glenn.Figure: Dr. Darling with former President Bill Clinton.Serving on what essentially were ship-based clinics that floated alongside the carriers, Dr. Darling oversaw, with the help of a handful of other doctors and nurses, the care and health of thousands of young men. He treated an assortment of physical problems and attended to emotional ones at times. But it was the seat-of-the-pants experience of trying to save lives in the middle of a gigantic ocean that provided him the most valuable medical lessons, he said. He recalled one day when a British ship nearby capsized, and he cared for about 10 near-drowning victims pulled from the waters. In another incident, a man who suffered what seemed to be a myocardial infarction was given an “experimental treatment” with a “new-fangled drug” called tissue plasminogen activator. It worked like a charm, and Dr. Darling remembers thinking how advantageous in some ways it was to be serving in the military. He was able to try an effective means for treating a heart attack without a hospital committee or clinical guideline to curtail him. “The deck (on an aircraft carrier) is a very good place to be to learn about medicine.” Dr. Robert Darling He also got to see the world in a way few people do, from the vantage point of a working naval vessel, not a tourist cruise ship. It deepened his love of the American way of life and of the freedom democracy bestows to its citizens. Even the hardships — being away from home and having a limited number of medical colleagues — “suited my personality very well,” he said. Dr. Darling said he felt the way he grew up, having to share a small house with six other people, enabled him to adjust to the cramped space of ship life. “We had a 1,500-square-foot house growing up, and somebody was always using the only bathroom,” he said, noting that turn-taking required some patience. When the call came asking him if he would like to be considered as a member of the White House's group of physicians, Dr. Darling didn't hesitate. When he passed the security clearance, he found himself in fairly constant contact with the president, although E. Connie Mariano, MD, was the senior White House physician and the physician to the president. It was President Clinton's knee injury that threw him into close daily presence with the president. “He put complete trust in us,” Dr. Darling recalled of those days of rehabilitation exercises and frequent physical examinations. Frequently jovial, the president was uncomplaining and compliant. White House Memories On the day Dr. Darling left the White House, Clinton wished him well and then bounded off to private quarters to retrieve a good-bye gift, a silk tie. “Here ya go, Rob,” he said. Of all the White House memories Dr. Darling holds fondly, none matches that of a trip to Arkansas in which he accompanied the president to a woodsy, isolated spot with his trusted aides. Dr. Darling sat in one corner of the room while the others talked, pecking away on a laptop computer. Suddenly, word came in that John Glenn, who was circling the globe on the space shuttle, wanted to e-mail the president. “There wasn't a computer around, so I offered mine,” he said. NASA forwarded Dr. Darling's AOL address to the shuttle. The rest, as they say, is history, as the two men — Clinton in a remote area of Arkansas and Glenn high above the earth — exchanged e-mails. A short time later, Dr. Darling printed out this little piece of history. When he asked Clinton to sign the hard copy, the president replied, “Sure, Doc,” and scrawled his signature. John Glenn, who later visited the White House, did the same. The brief electronic message between the two is one of Dr. Darling's most prized mementos. And, though he treasures the memories, he doesn't regret bidding farewell to those 16-hour days and seeing world leaders up close and personal. Married with three daughters, he now savors family time. “If somebody called and asked ‘Would you like to go back to the White House?’ I'd probably say no,” he said.