by Jennifer Kowalewski

Carl Backes, D.O., received the first phone call at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday regarding a lethargic 9-month-old infant with a fever. By 3:30 a.m., other doctors had called the neonatologist about the infant.

As Backes spoke to OU-COM students Wednesday afternoon in the Irvine lecture hall, he asked the future doctors what they would have ordered for the littlest of patients who could not tell doctors what hurt. After receiving a round of answers from some of the more than 100 medical students in the room, he explained that the infant suffered from a twisted bowel.

“That is why I do pediatrics,” said Backes, a former regional assistant dean, during his presentation Wednesday at Career Medical Specialties Week. “It doesn’t bother me to stay up all night helping my patients. Pediatrics is fun.”

For more than a decade, OU-COM has had practicing specialists — many of whom were alumni —speak to students about their areas of specialization. The event focuses on specialized medical practice to provide students a glimpse into areas they may be interested in practicing.

As the second speaker during the Career Medical Specialty Week, Backes discussed his specialization, neonatology, the area of pediatrics that focuses on the diseases and care of newborns. He talked about his practice in Columbus, as well a “day in the life” of a neonatolgist.

Second-year student Amy Miyoshi has thought about neonatology as an area of interest, particularly surgery for these little patients.

“I enjoyed learning about neonatology,” she says. “And I have thought about going into the field myself.”

Miyoshi appreciated Backes’ interaction with those present and said he really understood the perspective of medical students.

The director of the Kiddie West Pediatric Center in Columbus, Backes also is the director of pediatric residency program and the neonatology fellowship program at Doctors and Children’s Hospital in Columbus. He is a 1972 graduate of Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine.

When he awoke early Tuesday morning, he said he headed to Doctors Hospital for rounds, checking in on the nine infants in the Neonatology Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the five babies in the nursery all before 9 a.m. Then, he headed to his office to visit with patients until noon, after which he took an hour for lunch before teaching at Children’s Hospital until 5 p.m.

“When I first started practice, I saw 30 patients that first week,” he says. “Now, I see 30 patients in one day.”

He has worked in neonatology for 30 years now, working with high-risk mothers and premature infants. He has seen children in the NICU that have weighed 480 grams to 12 pounds. As he recalled, one Thanksgiving only five years into his practice, two infants died.

“That was one of the most disappointing days,” he said. “Both babies died from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Now I am a pediatrician, and my patients were dying, but I still don’t know what it is. SIDS is one of the most frustrating afflictions.”

But on Tuesday, he had one of the better moments in his long years of practicing. He says he sent home a three-and-a-half-month girl who was born after 25 weeks and weighted a mere 500 grams.

“She was as close to death as you could get,” Backes recalled. “But when she went home, she was normal. She weighed five pounds. That is what is so rewarding about this field.”

Back by popular demand, Robert S. Houser, D.O. (’97), will discuss plastic surgery practice Friday, April 17. Houser addressed students last year, and many requested his return to learn more about his practice in Westerville. He is in practice with father, Robert G. Houser, M.D.

“For the most part, I will talk about the life of a plastic surgeon,” Houser says. “I want to focus on the training necessary and to discuss aspects of plastic surgery students may not be aware and, as the other presenters, what it’s like day to day in my specialty.”

Although much of his practice does focus on cosmetic surgery, Houser says he has a passion for reconstructive surgery. In his third year in practice, he says he wants to help students understand there are other fields of medicine available to them. Houser completed a internship at Doctors Hospital and a residency at Mount Carmel Health System and the Ohio State University Medical Center.

Cardiologist H. Paul Kim, D.O. (’94), will close out Career Medical Specialties Week Wednesday, April 19. After a residency at Riverside Methodist Hospital, Kim completed a fellowship at Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania. Kim is board certified and currently practicing in Columbus.