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Wednesday, Mar 27, 2024

Lillian Seitsive, still a practicing doctor at 93, went to medical school at a time when women just didn’t do that sort of thing

Watching Lillian Paula Seitsive, white hair arranged to perfection, nails immaculately manicured and lips painted a bright crimson, it is difficult to imagine that only a week ago she was laid up in the hospital, ribs and clavicle broken from a bad fall. Or that she will be 94 years old come May. Seitsive has practiced medicine for nearly seven decades, raising a family at the same time. She is a founder of Northridge Hospital, the University of Judaism and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, among other charitable endeavors, and this year was named “Physician of the Year” by the California Medical Association. She still sees patients three and a half days a week at the same Northridge practice she has had for nearly 50 years. If Seitsive, who was born more than a decade before women won the right to vote, has trampled notions about women’s work, she is also a reluctant spokesperson for feminism and the challenges women face in the workplace. “I didn’t find it that difficult,” she says. “I suppose because I wanted it so badly.” Question: What made you decide to become a doctor? Answer: My family originally had 10 children, four of them sons. Three of the sons I never knew. They were born in Europe and they died in Europe. My fourth brother, whom I knew, when I was 5 years old developed a streptococcal infection. They had no cure for it. He was 21 and about to be married. In 11 days he was dead. These things made me wonder, why couldn’t something be done to save him? Q: Why did you decide to become a general practitioner? A: I opted for a general course of medicine and even in my internship, I wanted to have a part of each part of medicine because I wanted to know what it is. On my medical school application, I said I will do anything they want me to do but I won’t touch a mouse. Well, of course, when mouse time came I was ready to walk out. So they gave me a hamster. Q: What was it like to pursue your career at a time when women weren’t supposed to become physicians? A: I got out of medical school, and I needed my internship. I went from hospital to hospital to see about an internship, but there were none available, especially to a woman. Then someone I knew said, “Why not try for Coney Island Hospital?” And so I did. There were 300 males. I was the only female. While I was in line waiting to be interviewed, a young man came up to me and said, “What are you doing in line?” I said, “Exactly what you’re doing. Waiting to take the exam.” He said, “Don’t you know women belong in the kitchen?” It was the first time someone said that to me. A young man came off the line and said, “Don’t mind this loudmouth. I took a junior internship with him and he was a loudmouth then, too.” Of course, later on he became my husband. Q: What happened once you got the internship? A: They had a building to house the 20 male interns, but they had no place to put a female, so they told me they had to renege on the internship, and so I had to accept that. But I didn’t. I went to the other doctors who were interviewing me, and these other doctors came forth and said, “She took her exams and she passed them and you owe her a place.” So they cleared out a room on the top floor of the nurses’ building and put a phone in there and told me to answer all my ambulance calls in three minutes. They didn’t want to give me ambulance calls, but I said if the men have it, I want it. But I had long hair, so (in order to be ready for ambulance calls), before I went to bed, I would put my hair up in braids and put my clothes on, and that’s how I made the ambulance calls in three minutes. Q: Did you experience sexual harassment? A: Probably what they call harassment now I would call boy’s play. So they’d give me a little whack on the behind. So what’s the big deal? It didn’t bother me, and these interns were my friends. I think this is part of life and living. If you can’t meet these experiences, you can’t meet life, and you’re not on the right step. Maybe I was in the wrong step, but my wrong step brought me to 93. Q: How has the practice of medicine changed? A: The practice of medicine is entirely different, because we depend so much on what the machine tells us. If the machine is out of order, we get an out-of-order report. When I was interning we had to have our brain functioning and our heart functioning and we had to make do. And we did the best we could. Medicine is much more wonderful in the way of finding things, but we depend so much on the machine telling us instead of using our heart and hands and brain. If we were a little more merciful and looked into the past of the patient and what the patient is about, I think we’d find a lot more answers. Q: How do you feel about the changes in health insurance and the HMOs? A: Don’t talk HMO to me. I know people need more coverage, but they don’t need it from an HMO where the head of the HMO is getting rich and the doctor is pushed beyond in trying to come up with a little profit. Q: So you don’t participate in an HMO? A: I take health insurance, even Medicare, (but I’m not a participant in HMOs). Of course, if I charge $1 for a complete physical, I’m sure (the HMOs will) cut it down to 39 cents. If they enjoy doing that, OK, so long as I can get along. My practice is not as large as it was (as a result of the decision not to participate in an HMO), but I don’t care about that. I still have my patients who want to come in, but I don’t make it a point to go out and get them. Q: What do you charge for an office visit? A: What I noticed when I’ve needed a doctor’s attention is that there’s a charge made for walking into the office. I never did that. You come to me for what ails you, (and I charge you accordingly). Q: You were one of the founders of Northridge Hospital. How did that come about? A: We had no hospital when I came out here and we had to have a hospital. I had to go to Valley Hospital to deliver a baby and you couldn’t do that too often. There were 38 physicians and we joined together and put up the hospital. Q: How did you get involved with the Simon Wiesenthal Center? A: I was instrumental in the formation of the first Wiesenthal Center here in California. Then they went on and built that big building. What happened was I wanted to spread the idea. I wanted more people to join me in remembering the Holocaust and doing what we can so that it never happens again. Q: How have you managed to juggle your career and your family? A: My practice was a secondary one when my husband was alive. It’s the woman who really oversees the household. I took care of my children. When my husband died of a brain hemorrhage, there I am with two small children. God didn’t ask questions, he took what he wanted. I sat shiva (the Jewish custom of mourning for seven days) for three days and spoke to my rabbi and said, “The other days will only make me feel sorry for myself. I have a job to do. There are sick people out there and you have to give me permission to go back to work.” I had a pretty good practice, but when (my physician husband) died I was left with 100 patients a day. I worked a full week and on Saturday mornings. Q: What has been the most gratifying thing about your career? A: That I was one of the first women in the practice of medicine and led the way for other women to get in when there were no women around at all. It was something I did because it had to be done. I didn’t stop to think about satisfaction. It was just something that needed to be done. Q: When did you start cutting back your practice? A: I started cutting back with (the widespread arrival of HMOs). In recent years I’ve had a fractured pelvis and a fractured hip. You name it, I’ve had it. I can’t avoid what nature has done to my body. Q: What advice would you give to women starting out? A: I loved living in a man’s world. It is for me. It might not be for anybody else. I liked the challenge. That doesn’t mean a woman can’t come in and do it. If she feels strongly enough, she can do it. But if she’s comme ci, comme ca, she can’t make it. Q: What advice would you give people for living a long, healthy life? A: Stay away from things that will make you the victim.

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