Class Notes

Gordon F. Murray (M.D. 1963), of Southport, North Carolina, was elected president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons at its 45th annual meeting in January. Murray serves as professor emeritus of surgery at West Virginia University, and formerly served as chair of the Department of Surgery, chief of cardiothoracic surgery, director of the Thoracic Residency Program and chief of surgical services. He’s been a member of the society since 1982.

Gus Garmel (M.D. 1988), of San Diego, California, has published his third textbook, Clinical Emergency Medicine Casebook, with colleague Joel T. Levis, M.D. A previous textbook he wrote with S.V. Mahadevan, M.D., An Introduction to Clinical Emergency Medicine, won first place in the medical textbook physician category from the American Medical Writers Association in 2006. Garmel is clinical associate professor of emergency medicine (surgery) at the Stanford University School of Medicine, senior emergency physican for the Permanente Medical Group, and co-directs the Stanford/Kaiser emergency medicine residency program.

Michael Good (M.D. 1984) has been named interim dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine. A 20-year veteran of the University of Florida faculty, he most recently served as senior associate dean for clinical affairs and chief of staff for Shands Hospital, and is a professor of anesthesiology. Good and his wife, Danette, have five children and reside in Gainesvile.

Robert Truckner (M.D. 1987) is pursuing his interest in the field of eco-health. While continuing his clinical work in pediatric emergency medicine at After Hours Pediatrics in Cary, North Carolina, he now directs the Human Research Protections Office at the Environmental Protection Agency in Raleigh-Durham. Truckner is a member of Eco-Health — an international organization that explores the link between human health and ecological change. “There’s a lot of excellent research showing the human health effects of things like pesticide use, pharmaceuticals in the water supply, ozone depletion, and ‘toxic’ buildings,” he says. “We’re working to get that information out there to health professionals.” Truckner resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Yvonne Friday: Just Call Her Ella

Initially, Yvonne Friday didn’t want to go into medicine. She wanted to teach young children and be Ella Fitzgerald. “Kindergarten teachers have so much fun. They make a difference before people get jaded. I also wanted to be jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald on the side. Being a doctor never occurred to me,” admits Friday, a 1976 alumna. Because of her keen intellect and caring nature, many of Friday’s teachers encouraged her to go into medicine, and today she serves as division co-chief for pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. To her, medicine isn’t her job — it’s her mission. “I approach physicianhood as mission work. I didn’t go into medicine for prestige. I have gifts and wanted to give them to others who haven’t been so fortunate,” says Friday.

Additionally, Friday has been singing — her passion since age 5 — at the Detroit Opera House since 1996. “When I’m singing, that’s when I feel best about myself, I feel most alive. Music is a bigger vehicle for me than medicine to heal people,” she says. “I love being on stage and not being Dr. Friday. I leave her at work.”
—KURT ANTHONY KRUG

Steven Pitt: Inside the Criminal Mind

When Steven Pitt, D.O. (Residency 1990), was growing up, he first went to the crime stories instead of sports when reading the newspaper.

“It just always appealed to me,” says Pitt, of Scottsdale, Arizona, who completed a psychiatry residency at Michigan. A forensic psychiatrist, he has consulted on many high-profile cases, including the JonBenet Ramsey and Kobe Bryant cases, as well as the Columbine shootings. His business, Steven Pitt and Associates, includes Pitt and colleague Erin Spiers, Psy.D.

“Forensic psychiatry is the interface between psychiatry and the law,” explains Pitt. “It applies psychiatric principles to legal concepts in a variety of contexts — civil, criminal, legislative, correctional. Some forensic psychiatrists work in correctional settings, some advise policy-makers, but the bulk of the work is in civil and criminal cases.”

Pitt and Spiers recently assisted the Phoenix Police Department, with whom they consult on a regular basis, in the case of Vietnam-era veteran Michael Turney, a person of interest in the 2001 disappearance of 17-year-old stepdaughter Alissa Turney. Police had a warrant to search Turney’s house in this missing persons cold case.

Instead, they found an arsenal.

“When they were ready to issue the warrant,” Pitt says, “police were concerned about this guy’s behavior and the fact that he had video surveillance equipment outside his home, as well as some of the things he said in various letters.” That’s when they turned to Pitt for counsel. “There were some real concerns about officers’ safety. We had a SWAT team onsite to issue the search warrant because we thought he was potentially a very dangerous guy.”

When Turney went to his mailbox, the SWAT team issued the warrant and discovered he was armed with two semi-automatic weapons, an ammunition vest, a knife, and a mini-audio recording device inside his baseball cap. He was detained as police searched his home and evacuated 100 residents from the neighborhood.

“His house looked like Camp Pendleton,” says Pitt. “He had a massive amount of firearms and video surveillance equipment in his home. Police found over 30 improvised explosive devices throughout the house. It was the largest amount of explosives ever found in an individual home in the history of the department.”

Turney intended to bomb a local union, with which he had an ongoing dispute, then commit suicide. He was arrested on multiple weapons charges.

“Through truly terrific work by the police, I’m convinced that a mass murder was averted here — there is absolutely no doubt in my mind,” says Pitt.

Sadly, there is no trace of Alissa Turney, believed to be a victim of foul play. A summer episode of ABC’s 20/20 program is expected to cover the case.

“Of the overwhelming majority of forensic psychiatrists in the country, only a handful has access to police departments the way we do. The reason is that most mental health types are looked askance by law enforcement,” Pitt says. “We feel very fortunate to have this relationship. They tell us we’re a huge asset to them; we learn from them as well.”
—KURT ANTHONY KRUG