December 31, 2020
It is said that all good things must come to an end, but in this case it's a great and amazing thing, the career of Dr. Mike Waldschmidt. The beginning was more than 40 years ago when he earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Kansas Medical School. And yesterday, he saw his final patient less than 10 miles away from where it all began.
The lives of vascular surgeons are hard ones as it requires hospital call coverage 24/7, 365 days a year to literally be ready to save lives and limbs at any moment of any day all year round. The countless hours spent on their feet in the operating room or rounding on patients in the hospital. The phone calls from patients and hospitals in the middle of the night.
But as stories were shared by his colleagues and staff over the past few days, there was a resounding theme -
Dr. Waldschmidt truly cared about his patients, their families, their lives. He took the time to get to know his patients, he communicated the complex in simple ways. He taught by example. He earned respect and admiration with his talents, hard work, determination and larger than life personality. He always did the right thing for his patients.
And now, it is time for him to do the right thing for himself and his family as he retires from an amazingly successful career of nearly 40 years as fellowship trained vascular surgeon. As impressive as that is, success to him was earned one patient at a time.
On behalf of everyone at MAVI, congratulations Dr. Waldschmidt and our sincere best wishes for a retirement filled with all the smiles, joy and laughter you brought to MAVI, your patients, your staff and your peers! Cheers to you and yours!