"No one enjoys history until he's lived it"—a familiar adage. This is a bit of history that I have seen unfold during the last 25 years; one that I enjoy telling. It is a story not widely known in pediatrics, but it deserves to be, as it involves a remarkable man and pediatrician.
In 1961, after six years of private practice, I fulfilled a long-standing wish to observe medicine in another culture. Dr Janeway, my former chief, suggested that I might enjoy working in a new children's hospital in Ankara, Turkey. Ihsan Dogramaci, a private practitioner there, had founded the hospital in 1958 because he was disturbed over the poor hospital care his patients received. I joined him and a small group of other American and British physicians, nurses, and other health professionals. Our goal was to remake Turkish hospital care and medical education.