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• Physicians pack their stethoscopes
and running shoes to work in the outback.

RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER

TH E D E TRO I T J EW IS H N E WS

"After 16 years, I've lit-
erally watched these kids
grow up. I've seen campers
have their own children."
Dr. Gastman

46

mid a jungle of skyscrapers and
sweltering concrete, Dr. Irving
Gastman knew there were bet-
ter places to spend the hot sum-
mers of his childhood.
At age 5, the native New
Yorker's wish came true: His
mother sent him to a yeshiva
camp in the Catskills.
"To me, going camping was
like going to the Garden of
Eden," says Dr. Gastman, now
a family practitioner in Water-
ford.
He visited "Eden" each sum-
mer, eventually achieving the
status of counselor, then super-
visor.
These days, Dr. Gastman at-
tends camp wearing yet a differ-
ent hat: doctor. Fok the past 16
years, he has spent a week of his
summer treating everything from
stomachaches to homesickness
at Camp Sea Gull in northern
Michigan.
Like so many camp physicians,
Dr. Gastman looks forward to ad-
ministering in the outback. In ad-
dition to treating illnesses, camp
doctors have fun.
"All our doctors volunteer their
time. They see campers after
breakfast and after dinner and

Dr. Gastman and Dr. Perov
say camptime is one of the year's
highlights. It's when doctors build
a special rapport with their pa-
tients.
"I am like a surrogate parent
for many of them," Dr. Gastman
says. "And after 16 years, I've lit-
erally watched these kids grow
up. I've seen campers have their
own children. They come up to
me and say their parents told
them to tell me, If I get sick, you'll
be the one to take care of me."
The most common camp mal-
adies include sunburns, rashes,
eye infections, sprains and bruis-
es, stomachaches, splinters, colds
and sore throats. Doctors say
they have encountered a handful
of broken bones but very few
more serious problems.
However, when troublesome
cases arise, the
clinic staff brings
campers to the
nearest hospital.
"Ninety-nine
point nine per-
cent of the time
we see the every-
day things you
take your kid to
the doctor to
check. It's not ur-
gent," Mr.
Finkelberg says.
"Hav- ing a doc-
tor around is for
that .1 percent of
the time when it
is."
Dr. Steven

are free to take advantage of all
facilities at camp," says Harvey
Finkelberg, executive director of
the Fresh Air Society, which op-
erates Camp Maas in Ortonville.
Once a camper, always a
camper: Dr.Gastman learned
how to sail during his first year
working at Sea Gull. "But the
best part about it is the kids," he
says.
Other physicians agree. A spe-
cial bond forms at camp, they say.
When children fall ill away from
home, reassurance and security
become especially important.
Many children frequent camp
clinics complaining of no partic-
ular symptoms other than, per-
haps, an acute case of
homesickness.
"Oftentimes, these kids don't
really need a doctor. They need
to know you're a doctor," says Dr.
Samuel Perov, chief of the de-
partment of anesthesiology at
the Detroit Receiving Hospi-
•"Twenty-five kids lat-
tal.
er, I was still there. I de-
For a week every summer, cided it would be a good
Dr. Perov also works at Sea summer activity."
Gull. He says being on call vir-
Dr. Auster
tually 24 hours a day doesn't
phase him. It's part of his job
at the Detroit Receiving, too.

Leber, a Camp Maas doctor and
pediatric neurologist in Ann Ar-
bor, says the most dangerous sit-
uations arise when parents do
not supply counselors and the
clinic with adequate information
about their children's health.
Telephone numbers also are es-
sential when the camp must lo-
cate parents in an emergency.
"The more parents write on
their children's health forms, the
better," Dr. Leber says.
Dr. Leber recalls one summer
when a child, newly diagnosed
with epilepsy, was too embar-
rassed to disclose her disorder to
the camp staff. Days later, Dr.
Leber found out about the
camper's condition, sat down with
her and explained that the diag-
nosis was not the end of the
world.

