DALLAS TWP. — Ninety-year-old physician Irvin Jacobs will hang up his stethoscope and white doctor’s jacket on June 30 to retire from a profession he has loved for over six decades.
Jacobs kept up with the changes to the medical field and traded his black doctor’s bag for a laptop when patients’ medical records were computerized.
Now, he is trading that laptop in for books, cooking and riding his stationary bicycle as he sets out to conquer retirement
Early days
Jewel, Jacobs’ wife of 68 years, proudly shared a worn, black and white photo of Jacobs standing at a patient’s bedside with three nurses.
The photo depicts his early days working as an intern at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in 1953.
The Philadelphia native just graduated from Thomas Jefferson University with his medical degree and was eager to gain experience and build a practice.
“There were three interns at General Hospital at the time,” he said. “We covered everything from the emergency room to the maternity ward.”
Jacobs remembered alternating shifts to cover weekends and nights.
“Weekend shifts were Friday to Monday,” he said. “Straight through.”
The hospital did have a room for the in-house physician to take a nap during extended shifts, he said.
“These were very good days,” Jewel said. “It made him a very good doctor.”
The hours were long, but the experience was invaluable and led the young man into “the most exciting time” of his life.
Country coc
In 1954, Jacobs and his wife moved to Noxen to establish a medical practice with physician Lester Saidman.
Jewel recalled their home and the office was adjourned.
The medical practice bled into the couple’s daily life and many times the lines between “family time” and “work time” were blurred, she said.
“The practice came first,” Jewel said. “There were many times we had to change plans due to an emergency.”
She remembered one instance on a Saturday night when the couple received a call about a woman in labor at Claude Birth’s Service Station near Weis Markets in Dallas Township.
Many expectant mothers would time their labor so when they arrived at the doctor’s office, a hospital birth would soon follow, Jacobs said, citing it was common for many families not to have health insurance.
But this time, the mother did not reach the hospital before the baby arrived and Jacobs and Jewel assisted with the birth at the service station.
“There were births at the office in homes,” Jewel recalled.
Jacobs has lost count of the many births he assisted as well as house calls he made.
House calls
“I made house calls on the back of tractors and in deep snow,” he said.
One house call took Jacobs and Saidman out to Centermoreland on a rainy day.
“The dirt roads were muddy and slippery,” Jacobs said.
Saidman’s car tires were unable to gain traction on the slick roads, he said.
“Dr. Saidman got out of the car and let air our of the tires to get the car to move,” he said.
Jacobs still laughs about a winter house call story that had him trudging through the snow.
He remembered the patient lived at the top of a steep hill on Route 29 and icy road conditions prevented his car from driving up the hill.
Jacobs drove around the hill to the opposite side, thinking he could get to the patient’s home easier if he was coming down the hill versus going up.
“I slid right past the home and down the hill,” he said, laughing.
He then opted to walk.
Dallas Family Practice
The Noxen medical practice grew to include a third doctor, Walter Mokychic.
In 1964, the three physicians decided to separate.
Mokychic moved his practice to Shavertown, Saidman relocated his office to Kingston and Jacobs opened an office called Dallas Family Practice at the corner of Machell and Sterling avenues in Dallas Borough.
“I wanted to have a stable practice with scheduled appointments,” he said.
However, the house call portion of his business never went away until 2015.
“I made house calls until two years ago,” Jacobs said.
In 1967, physician Charles A. Krivenko joined the practice.
“Three years later Thomas Campbell came in,” Jacobs said.
The medical practice continued to grow its physician and patient base, which attracted interest from Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
In 1987, Wilkes-Barre General Hospital took over management of the practice.
“Several more doctors were added at this time,” Jacobs said. “We were open into the evening and on weekends.”
In 1995, the medical office moved to a facility on Upper Demunds Road in Dallas Township, near the municipal building, Jacobs said.
The Wyoming Valley Health Care System released the facility from its holdings in 2001.
Jacobs said the physicians relocated Dallas Family Practice to office space off Lake Street in Dallas Borough, near Pizza Bella.
Moving forward
Through the years, Jacobs’ dedication to his patients was always first, which made it imperative his patients were notified of his decision to retire.
“He came one one day and told me he was going to retire,” Jewel said.
Jacobs said many of his patients are sad to see him retire.
“‘It is a sad time,’ they tell me,” he said.
During his retirement, Jacobs plans to fill his time with visiting his family as well as catching up on some reading, maybe taking a cooking class and riding his stationary bicycle.
He also plans to visit the staff and patients at Dallas Family Practice.
“I will miss the office staff,” Jacobs said. “The patients are in excellent hands.”
