BILL GAITHER/The Register-Mail

Dr. Jeffrey Baumgardner has opened a new OB/GYN office at 940 N. Henderson St. Baumgardner stands behind a sonogram machine.

From USDA career to OB/GYN

Researcher follows wife to U of I medical school

Saturday, December 9, 2006

By Amelia Flood

The Register-Mail

"It's a big jump," said Dr. Jeffrey Baumgardner, a former researcher with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service lab in Peoria. Baumgardner's new obstetrics and gynecological practice opened Nov. 29 at 940 N. Henderson St.

Baumgardner's first career path did not include medicine, let alone his obstetrics specialty. The Galesburg native graduated in 1989 from Knox College and earned a master's degree in biology. Baumgardner began to consider a medical career thanks to his wife, Christine, who is a general family practice physician. Christine, or Chris as he calls her, worked for the Knox College biology department for six years. She co-authored articles with professor Bill Geer on ethanol, fruit flies, and possible links to alcoholism.

Researching alcoholism and fruit flies, though well-received in the scientific community, had significant drawbacks.

"The way lab research works is a year by year basis," said Baumgardner. "It's a soft funding. Particularly the research they were doing." Financially, said Baumgardner, it was difficult due to the uncertainty in procuring grants to finance Christine's work with Geer.

Christine then applied to medical school. She was accepted to University of Illinois College of Medicine. During her first year at the Urbana-Champaign campus Baumgardner decided to go into medicine himself.

"While Chris was in her first year of medical school, she had to stay in Champaign-Urbana," explained Baumgardner. "I was at home with the kids. I think it was a much tougher year for Chris because she was gone and I was home."

While on his own, Baumgardner reassessed his own career.

"I had a lot of time to think. It kind of dawned on me that I could go to medical school," said Baumgardner. The decision became, Baumgardner said, "my own little mountain to climb."

"I'm never going to go to Everest. I'm never going to get to do a lot of those kind of things. It became my own personal challenge."

Baumgardner entered medical school at University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1998, graduating in 2002. He began his residency in Peoria and completed it earlier this year. Obstetrics and gynecology, Baumgardner's fields, were not the first specializations he considered.

"At first, I was sure I was going to do family practice," said Baumgardner.

After participating in the Rural Student Physician Program for nine months in 2001, Baumgardner changed his mind. The program, which brings young doctors to rural areas, paired Baumgardner with local doctors including Dr. Tom Wettle, a gynecologist.

"I really enjoyed learning from him. I found over the course of that nine months I really looked forward to the time I would spend in the practice of obstetrics."

Baumgardner has seen the highs and the lows of the profession since 2001, as Peoria is where women from 18 different counties come to manage their high risk pregnancies. Many of these subsequent deliveries, Baumgardner says, end well.

"It's a happy moment in their lives. Even though they're in the hospital."

Things don't always go according to plan. One case, a delivery of twins, did not end happily or in the way Baumgardner expected. The boy and girl were born after 32 weeks, which Baumgardner says is considered a good amount of time for Peoria high-risk pregnancies. The baby girl was healthy at birth while her brother was sickly. However, complications arose and the girl was intubated. Baumgardner says she did not "do well." Her doctors and family eventually decided to take her off life-support.

"We went into a little private room. The parents held the baby," Baumgardner recalled. "And, over time, the baby passed away. And it was hard for me because I had to hold the stethoscope to her chest and pronounce the death." Such losses, said Baumgardner, are extremely personal and therefore difficult for not only the bereaved family but also the physician. Baumgardner can speak from experience. While his daughter, Elisa Nelson, is now an assistant district attorney in Peoria and his son, Jamie Baumgardner, is in school following his retirement from the U.S. Air Force, his youngest son, Brian Nelson, a member of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, died in August.

Baumgardner's new practice looks to be a "women's health center," that will cover all aspects of women's health. It also gives local women a place to discuss issues they might not talk about with anyone but a doctor, he said.

"It's really exciting," said Baumgardner. "Women are really looking for someone they can trust when it comes to gynecological issues. It's not easy to talk about."