SAYRE, Okla. — The doctor is in. But he's the only one for miles.
Dr. Kenneth Whinery, an 87-year-old family
practitioner, is recovering from a broken back and living with prostate
cancer. But he opened his practice here in 1960, and he still sees
patients daily.
“I’m the only doctor here through the day,”
Whinery said. “If they’re sick, I take care of them. And through the
years, all these years, I think I can say that I didn’t turn anybody
away that was sick.”
The hospital, five minutes from Whinery's
office, shuttered 17 months ago, unable to stay afloat in this town of
just over 4,000 people on the western edge of Oklahoma. There's no
specialty medical care, and the nearest ambulance is based 25 minutes
away. Two-thirds of the residents in the town's two nursing homes rely on Medicaid.
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