The need to serve others called him to the ranks of medicine, and the lure of the sea beckoned him to serve his country.
There is little in the hills of southern Indiana that could have prepared Dennis Conard, MD '80, for his career as an undersea medical officer.
Growing up in scenic Hanover and nearby Madison on the banks of the Ohio River, Dennis Conard gained a strong work ethic and the desire to serve others. He worked as a paperboy, then as a clerk in the Hanover College bookstore and later as an orderly at King's Daughters Hospital.
His mother, who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, was an obstetrics nurse. She would work long hours at the hospital, then return home to her husband and four children in her role as a wife and mother. "Helping her around the house is what made me more compassionate," recalls Dr. Conard.
Then there was the guidance he received from physicians at the hospital: Robert O. Zink, MD '42; Schirmer Riley, MD; Noel Graves, MD '49; and Drs. Jack and Marcella ('43) Modisett. "What I wanted to see in myself, I saw in them," he says. "From an early time, I wanted to help people."
After graduating at the top of his class from Southwestern High School, Dr. Conard continued his studies at IU Bloomington, then moved to the Indianapolis campus where he completed medical school. The
Young Man And The Sea
When Dr. Conard speaks of his youthful leisure-time activities, sports
dominate - all but swimming, that is. Running, bicycling (frequently riding
the 120 miles from Bloomington to Hanover) and intramural football were frequent
activities. But he feared water, a
So instead of beginning a lengthy residency training program in plastic surgery, he traded his lab coat for Navy whites and tuition assistance and spent the next few years treating SEALs (Sea, Airborne, Land) and submariners. Training was rigorous. After a one-year surgical internship at Portsmouth, Va., he was sent to the Navy Undersea Medical Institute (NUMI) in Groton, Conn., where six months of training laid the groundwork for diving school.
It was in Panama City, Fla., that Dr. Conard says he conquered his fear and became proficient at salvage, scuba and deep-sea diving. In a special course for physicians, he learned about the physiological effects of compressed air dives and helium/oxygen dives. Potential medical emergencies from diving such as seizures, gas emboli, and sodasorb burns had to be understood more thoroughly than a textbook explanation could provide. To effectively treat their unique patients, medical undersea officers experienced first-hand the rigors of training.
"Diving medicine is the epitome of occupational medicine," he says. "We had to understand what to expect in each phase of a dive, how nitrogen acts on your body and at what point it is no longer safe to use compressed air, among other things. We had to know the marine life, what happens in accidents, how to treat decompression sickness, the hazards of equipment failure and how to operate hyperbaric chambers."
On Dry Ground
His undersea medical training qualified him to be a physician to SEAL teams,
underwater demolition teams and submariners. But Dr. Conard eventually was lured
back to land. He decided to return to his first love by accepting a residency
training position in general surgery. That effort was ended by a back injury,
followed by an unsuccessful surgery. A second surgery remedied his back problem
but, by then, Dr. Conard already had resigned his residency. So after eleven
years and experiences most boys from Hanover never have, Dr. Conard, a lieutenant
commander, received a medical retirement.
He remained in San Diego as an emergency room physician but eventually tired of the overpopulated southern California region. Spacious fields, tree-covered hills and friendly people brought him back to the Hoosier state, where he now has 164 acres to call his own. His farm near Canaan, Jefferson County, is about as far-removed from his life in the Navy as one can get.
Amber Waves
His life is not without its challenges though; he is changing medical specialties
to occupational medicine with Norton Healthcare, working on a master's degree
in public health, studying Spanish as a second language, learning the ways of
a grape farmer and is the father of two young children.
"I've got a career that allows me to do what I want to do personally and professionally," he says. "I've got my hands full and I know it, but I'm happy and I've got time to be with my kids and my wife Stacie."
He may no longer smell the salt air, but the sea isn't too far away from his farmstead's back door. "There are times if the grass is the right height and the wind blows, it moves the fields in waves," he says wistfully. "It's just beautiful."