When Russell Dohner was a boy, he had a ordeal with seizures. That incident and the kindness of the doctor who treated him inspired Dohner to later go to medical school.
“When I came out of them,” he tells PEOPLE, “there would always be [our physician] Dr. Hamilton. I decided I wanted to be like him.”
So, Dohner went to medical school, then hung out a shingle in the next county over charging a fee of $2
That was in 1955. And well, times have changed, however someone forgot to tell Dr. Dohner that.
He still sees patients seven days a week out of the same office, keeps handwritten records with the help of his longtime nurse, Florence Bottorff, 88, and has been charging patients $5 a visit since the ’70s.
“That’s the way I’ve always done it,” says the gentlemanly bachelor. “There are quite a few people who come to see me because they can’t afford anybody else. I can help.”
For that, a town is grateful. “Right now, I’m not working and I don’t have insurance,” says Mildred Ortiz, 50, who has high blood pressure, who sings Dohner’s praises “Dr. Dohner works for his patients, and for love.”
