By Juliet Kadzviti

First doctor’s gala to honour well-known family physician

Mar 27, 2016 | 8:27 AM

A man who has been passionate about medicine since he six years old, is getting recognized for his decades’ long dedication to the field.

Dr. Louis Poulin will be the first honouree at The Victoria Hospital Foundation’s inaugural Doctor’s Gala on April 9. The gala is a fundraising event aimed at honouring the health region’s doctors.

Poulin was pleasantly surprised when he found out he was selected to be the first honouree.

“I was quite surprised when I was told that I was going to be the first honoree, but it was a nice shock to be told that you were picked to be …the first one. It’s quite a humbling thing too.”

Poulin started his medical journey in the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region in 1979, and finally, after 30 years of practice, he decided to retire in 2009, due to Parkinson’s disease.

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He said he thoroughly enjoyed nearly every part of his long career.

“Medicine was a very enjoyable career, everything I did in medicine, from skin disease to you name it, I enjoyed every aspect of medicine. It was a challenge but a rewarding challenge,” he said.

Poulin’s relationship with his patients is one of the highlights of his career.

“One of the things they told us at medical school is that, you shouldn’t mix friendships with professional relationships, but in the small town of Prince Albert, that’s almost impossible to do,” he said, adding, “The most satisfying part was the friendships I developed with my patients over the years.”

The only aspect of his career Poulin said he doesn’t miss was the stress that came with being a doctor. “The stress of it was hard on my body and hard on my Parkinson’s disease so I was in a way happy that it turned out the way it did (referring to his retirement).”

When Poulin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1998, he found himself bonding with patients who were experiencing the disease.

 “The Parkinson’s patients I had become very, very close because they knew I could understand what they were going through and that was a unique experience,” he recalled.

Highlights of his illustrious career include delivering close to a 1,000 babies he said. “I did a lot, I was a typical family physician from that era.”

Poulin said his family has been very supportive of his career and are happy he is being honoured.

“The outpouring of support from my family and congratulations has been just overwhelming, they are all very happy for me and very proud of me,” he said.

He decided to start fundraising with the Victoria Hospital Foundation because he wanted to “lead by example” for his fellow community members. He saw the need for medical equipment and knew he could do something to help. Soon Poulin was on the Victoria Hospital Foundation Board.

His fundraising efforts have helped raise over $100,000 in new medical equipment.

Poulin said the community of Prince Albert “is a great supporter of the Vic Foundation and the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region,” and he expressed his thanks to the community.

“I would like to thank all those patients and staff and people who supported me over the years. It’s been a fun career and I don’t regret a single thing.”

The sold out gala event will take place on April, 9, 2016 at Plaza 88 with live music from the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra.

jkadzviti@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @princealbertnow