Marvin H. Terry Grody, M.D. celebrated his 60th year as a physician in 2006. Terry was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1943 and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1946. Terry opened his private practice in Hartford, Connecticut in 1953. In 1985, he embarked on a twenty-year second career as a medical school clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology, first at the Columbia University Medical School, then, for eleven years, at Temple University Medical School and, finally, commencing in 2002, at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He retired in 2006 at the age of 84. Terry has organized and hosted more than 25 medical conferences and has produced 34 educational videos demonstrating advanced surgical techniques. He has appeared as guest surgeon, guest professor or guest lecturer throughout the United States and overseas. His book, "Benign Postreproductive Gynecologic Surgery," was published in 1984 and he has authored or co-authored more than 40 published scientific manuscripts. Terry has been awarded every major national honor his profession can bestow, including recognition as "Distinguished Surgeon" in 2001 by the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons and in 1998 by the Society of Pelvic Reconstructive Surgeons. He has been honored multiple times for excellence in teaching by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and by the universities at which he taught.
Recently, Dr. Marvin Grody sent me a book he had written based on his experience of more than 50 years in the practice of obstetrics and gynecology. He spent 32 years in private practice and 20 years as a medical school clinical professor. . . . The book itself consists of more than 35 individual anecdotes involving a clinical situation. Each is presented in a personal fashion as opposed to the standard medical presentation. Therefore, you sense the patients' concerns as well as the physician's response. A sampling of the chapters includes, Mud, Police Call, Marbles, Lettuce, Homage to Boxer Shorts, Blood, and more. With each of these titles is a well-presented scenario of what happened and why the name.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has been actively recruiting medical students to our specialty. One of our greatest assets, we have found, is the close personal bond between obstetrician-gynecologists and their patients. This book gives examples of one physician's intriguing and satisfying experience with his patients.
It is not heavy reading like a medical textbook, but more like a novel. As you read these anecdotes, I am certain you will recall similar situations with your patients. At least I did, and I enjoyed the remembrance.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Copyright September, 2008 --ACOG Clinical Review