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Dr. David Morris, who founded Allergy Associates, and Dr. Dennis Costakos, a Franciscan Skemp neonatologist who cares for premature babies, have their own chapters in the book, “White Coat Wisdom,” which will be released this week in bookstores across the country and online.
The book, written by Stephen J. Busalacchi, a former reporter for National Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Radio, is a collection or oral histories of physicians who discuss experiences that are unique to the medical profession.
Busalacchi said the book is “about the grit necessary to overcome substantial obstacles and ultimately discover true fulfillment in one’s personal and professional life.” And in the process, readers get practical medical advice about health problems and hear real world examples of how to succeed against long odds, he said.
“Half of the wisdom in this book, you do not get from an Ivy League education,” Costakos said. “This book is living anthropology. Few books look at how doctors’ think. Physicians and readers will gain insights.”
Costakos is known for his innovation in the care of newborns. He pushed for the state of Wisconsin to check every child for biotinidase, an enzyme that prevents seizures, developmental delay, eczema and hearing loss. Wisconsin became one of 17 states to screen for the enzyme.
“We saved eight lives the first year for 50 cents a blood test,” Costakos said.
Chapter 19 starts out: “Dennis Costakos was ahead of his time, even in high school, when he discovered a superior treatment for eyelid cancer that would later become common practice.”
Costakos said he can’t forget patients who with a little intervention and prevention would not have died. He said he was attracted to medicine because “we’re sort of unsung heroes” on most days.
“One of the other things I enjoy about medicine is when we figure out that something like folic acid can decrease birth defects, then it becomes like we’re almost like public health folks,” Costakos said.
In Chapter 9, titled “Unconventional Wisdom,” Busalacchi talks about Morris as an outcast in the medical community who has been treating allergy/asthma patients with a sublingual antigen approach (oral drops under the tongue) for several decades.
Patients from across the country have been coming to his La Crosse clinic for treatment, and Morris claims his unconventional therapy is 90 percent effective.
“The sublingual approach I’ve proven works for molds. Shots do not work,” Morris said in the book. “We’ve treated 7,000 people at our clinic, and I would say as many as half had asthma.”
Morris said he persisted in working on his technique to help patients despite the odds and opposition.
“The research is supporting what we do,” Morris said. “It was very encouraging in the 1980s to visit with doctors in Europe who had done some excellent studies on the sublingual approach. That was very helpful for me.”
What about the skeptics? “They’re still there,” Morris said. “The less people know about it, the more violently they speak about it. The very best allergists in the United States have a very open mind to it.”
To end his chapter, Morris said he wasn’t sure when his approach would become mainstream. “I hope it’s a short time...it will happen,” he said.
At a glance
Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com, or (608) 791-8227
