Many folks in the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula have good reason to celebrate tomorrow, as it is the birthday of Dr. John Deschamps, who retired three years ago after practicing medicine in Kilmarnock for 29 years. During his career here, he was a mainstay in the field of medical care, always giving his patients the finest possible professional health care.
A native of South Carolina, he grew up in Washington, D.C., and graduated from the University of the District of Columbia. From there he matriculated at the Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, from which he received his medical degree. After his internship and residency, he practiced in Texas prior to moving to Kilmarnock to join the practice at Bay Internists.
His knowledge of health care is encyclopedic, to the extent that his patients knew they were receiving the best information available. Equally importantly, they knew they were in the hands of a devoted and caring physician who worked tirelessly to afford them the finest health care.
Medicine has been his life, as is apparent from any conversation with him. Treating the sick, caring for those in extremis, counseling those in difficult periods of their lives formed the hallmark of his medical profession. He is from the school of leaving nothing unexplained, telling his patients everything that he knew, thereby inculcating in them complete trust in his knowledge and in his judgment.
Health and wellness might have been the reasons for patients going to seek his care, but the stimulating conversations that always ensued from each visit became a wonderful byproduct. He is a lifetime learner, not only in the arena of medicine, but in that of life itself. He made a visit to the doctor an experience to which one looked forward, and not merely for reasons of health.
Throughout the course of his practice in Kilmarnock, he has been a steadfast supporter of the Northern Neck-Middlesex Free Health Clinic, thereby giving of the wealth of his wisdom and concern to the benefit of those in our community in need of his care.
Dr. D. is a proponent of the philosophy that good health requires “work” on the patient’s part as well as that of the physician. He stresses the importance of exercising every day. Once he remarked that he had not seen me at the gym lately, to which I replied that I was delighted to hear him say that, otherwise I should have thought that he needed an appointment with an ophthalmologist.
On another occasion, after many years as his patient, I told him that in treating me, he had to realize that I could not improve my health by stopping smoking. He looked surprised, until I said that I had never started, hence I could not stop what I never had begun.
I also once told him that I no longer needed him for diagnosis, as I had diagnosed all of my own medical concerns, but I definitely needed him for treatments. He asked what my diagnosis was, to which I replied, “Birthdays.”
In retirement, Dr. D. has continued to live in the Northern Neck, to go to the gym for his exercise routine and to comment on the scene that passes around us. Across the years that he has been here, he has become an integral part of the lore of “our moated Eden” to use the term of the late historian, C. Jackson Simmons, and countless of those in our midst have been blessed by his presence among us. Many of us are living healthier, richer lives because of Dr. John Deschanps.
Happy Birthday, Dr. D.! Ad multos annos!
