Dr. Patricia Louttit (left) has officially been awarded a position with the Canadian Forces. She is seen here with husband Jim and daughters Michelle and Elizabeth. Photo by Ally Dunham

By Ally Dunham

Born and raised in Dryden, Dr. Patricia Louttit decided to make her career in the field of medicine in her hometown, but is now moving on to the military to further her life experiences. Louttit will see her last day of work at the Dingwall Clinic at the end of December.

“I decided I wanted to be a doctor sometime late in high school and I talked to Dr. Stuart Ford about it, and he said that’s a great idea, and so off I went,” said Louttit.

“I completed my undergrad at Western and then did my medical school at Western because my brother was there at the time.”

Louttit had plans to return to Dryden from the time she chose her career path, with strong roots in the community.

“The plan was always to come back, work part time, have my family. I met my husband at the Dingwall Clinic when I worked there as a student. My husband was the clinic manager when I worked there, so the plan was to get married after medical school but we decided that was going to take too long,” said Louttit. “We decided to get married between third and fourth year.”

Moving on to Winnipeg to complete her residency, Louttit broke the traditional standards by deciding to have her first child between first and second year of residency.

“It was kind of unheard of. I was sort of their guinea pig I guess, I was their first one who had done it, so they had to revamp the scheduling and that kind of thing,” said Louttit. “I came home for the summer, had the baby. It kind of messed things up because you’re not on a normal schedule, but they were really good about it.”

Moving back to Dryden, buying a house, and increasing their family by three more daughters, Louttit continued to further her career starting at Dr. Corten’s clinic on King Street.

“Then I moved over to the Dryden Clinic and I worked there for five or six years, and then I moved up to the Dingwall Clinic mainly because Dr. Ford and Dr. Ryan retired,” said Louttit.

Louttit’s passion lies in obstetrics, and says one of her most memorable moments was delivering “her first grandchild”. Delivering the baby of someone Louttit had previously delivered.

“Babies and palliative care are my favourite, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But, I worked with Dr. Mazurski on the chemo unit and it’s not always about palliative care. I get a lot of fulfillment out of that. It feels good to be able to give people a peaceful death, or a painless death and help the family through it,” said Louttit. “I can remember one night when I had a lady who was dying, and I went and pronounced her dead, and within half an hour I was over here delivering a baby.”

Louttit sat as Chief of Staff for a few years, was a part of the recruitment team for DRHC and was a big part of furthering the medical community in Dryden.

As twenty years came and went, Louttit felt her goals changing to include a more international scope, and applied to the military.

“I want to do something bigger, more global. Like when Haiti had its disaster, that was just after I had applied to Petawawa and it was the Petawawa field hospital that went there. That would have been really cool,” said Louttit.

Louttit has now been accepted to the military, and does not know what community her future holds for her.

Following the enrollment ceremony, Louttit will finish out her time at DRHC and the Dingwall Clinic, and move on to basic training with the military.

“They have a more condensed version (of basic training) where they have a five or six week medical part and then a five or six week basic officer, weapons training, basically what the military is about, structure, that kind of thing.”

“Their big thing is always, you’re a soldier and then you’re a medical officer. It’s not, just because you’re a doctor you don’t have to be fit, or know how to shoot a gun. You still have to do all those basic minimum things,” said Louttit.

When asked what her family thinks, Louttit said her husband was ready for a change, and her two younger children that are still at home, will stay and finish off their school year in Dryden.

“I’m getting posted somewhere, but I don’t know where. One of the bases across Canada and then they will do this other spring training, so they will stay here until the end of their school year,” said Louttit. “The two younger ones aren’t thrilled. They like the idea of the adventure and think that I should do it.”

Her two daughters are very involved in music and sports within the school, and are currently in Grades 9 and 11.

“It’s really hard when all I can say is I don’t know where we’re going, I’m just leaving. It’s really hard for them to understand or see. All they see is they are losing their friends, and there’s a black hole as to where they’re going. I’m hoping we’ll go somewhere that has some good programs,” said Louttit.

Louttit’s patient load will be transferred to the new doctors servicing the Dingwall Clinic, including Dr. Moir and Dr. Jollymore.