Local physician recalls George Bush as surgical patient

Published 2:33 pm Wednesday, December 5, 2018

THOMASVILLE — A Thomasville physician remembers George Herbert Walker Bush as warm, concerned about others and someone with great character he was thrilled to see in high office.

Dan Mitchell, a Thomasville dermatologist, was near the end of a three-year residency at Bethesda Naval Hospital in mid-1986, when his boss called him into his office.

“I was thinking I was in big trouble. He never called me in his office,” Mitchell, then a lieutenant commander, said.

The young officer’s superior asked if he would be free on a certain date when a VIP patient would come to the hospital for a procedure. In Washington, D.C., everyone is a VIP, Mitchell said.

A short time later, five men wearing black suits and sunglasses arrived at Mitchell’s office and asked him if he had ever been to the Soviet Union and if he belonged to the Communist party.

On the day of the VIP surgery, senior resident Mitchell entered Bethesda’s surgical area. 

“There lying on the table was the vice president of the United States — George Herbert Walker Bush,” Mitchell said.

The then-vice president underwent surgery to remove a basal cell carcinoma from his face. When Mitchell’s physician boss left the surgical area to look at the removed tissue under a microscope, he left Mitchell to control the bleeding on the vice president’s face.

“How do you converse with the vice president?” Mitchell asked. 

He introduced himself to Bush, who he expected to be aloof.

“He was so warm and with a smile,” Mitchell recalled, adding that Bush asked him about his family.

After an all-clear was declared about the tissue removed, the surgical wound was closed. Bush reached into his pocket, handed Mitchell an index card and asked him to dispose of it. Written on the card was the vice president’s schedule for the day.

Later that day, Mitchell considered what a great souvenir the card would be, but it was not in the trash can. Mitchell suspects Secret Service Secret “beat me to it.”

Mitchell received a photograph from Bush with a signed inscription. The White House physician wrote a letter of gratitude to Mitchell, who said, “I’ve had the picture and the letter on my wall ever since.”

After Bush was elected president, a friend who worked as a steward at Camp David gave Mitchell a cup that is among his most prized possessions. 

“The president drank from it, and it had not been washed,” Mitchell said.

Recalling the surgical experience with Bush, Mitchell said the former president’s death stirs warm memories.

“It was so very special,” he said.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820