It didn’t take long for David Kason to fall in love with his new career in Ladner.
Back in the summer of 1972, the UBC med school grad was finishing up his internship at St. Paul’s Hospital when he was approached by Dr. Yamanaka about joining his recently-opened clinic at Ladner Trunk Road and Linden Drive.
“They were in a desperate need. I went out and met them and it seemed exciting to me,” he recalled. “It was like cowboy medicine out here. My first weekend working was a long weekend and I made 42 house calls. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. This was medicine. I was a real doctor.”
For the next 48 years, Kason would provide a wide range of care for up to four generations for some families before retiring from the Ladner Family Practice Clinic at the end of last year. That only came when his ideal replacement was found in Dr. Tiara Rodriguez Nunez who shares many of his values.
“It’s a commitment for life and my career has been a phenomenal experience. Nobody was wanting to take over and what I had to do with these patients that have been my life and I am so grateful to them,” said the 76-year-old. “It’s been a privilege to look after thousands of people and deliver thousands of babies. You feel a commitment there that is hard to explain to people.
“It was last March when I thought it was time to bite the bullet. I sent out a letter to my patients and I had to find somebody. Then COVID hit and I thought I just couldn’t leave now and walk away from my people, so I put (retirement) on the back-burner again. Then we got into this virtual medicine and for us old guys it just sucked. These weren’t just my patients, they were my life. Patients I delivered and patients I looked after for years.”
Kason was always attracted to the diversity of family medicine. That passion grew further during his third year of med school when he got a head start on his internship by setting up a three-month training program at Richmond Hospital. He got to do just about everything from delivering babies, performing surgeries under supervision, to seeing patients in the emergency department.
It helped pave the way to a versatile career.
"A cradle to grave doctor"
“He has influenced so much of medicine in South Delta. He is a real traditional cradle to grave physician,” explained Dr. Jennifer Rodgerson, co-chair of the Delta Division of Family Practice. “He was still delivering babies up until about 10 years ago. Then there was his work in palliative care and extended care. He really did the full spectrum of family medicine which in this day and age is rare. He did it all.”
Kason has long been involved in the UBC med school faculty and continues to be. That’s where Rodgerson first met him as part of her admittance process back in 1996.
“Dr. Kason had called me back and said ‘let’s do an interview on Martin Luther King Day.’ For some reason I happened to know the exact date that year and it just rolled off my tongue. My friends at the time think that’s the reason I got into med school,” she laughed.
Kason’s early days in Ladner included being part of a local ambulance operation in a converted Cadillac station wagon to attend car accidents at a time when BC Ambulance didn’t serve South Delta. There were a few interesting house calls too.
“There were a group of people who lived on the eastside of Ladner before 64th Street was developed and it may have been like squatter houses,” he recalled. “I had a pit lamp I would stick in my (car cigarette) lighter as it was hard to find these places at night. You would go across a wooden bridge over a ditch and inside the house there would be a wooden stove in one corner of the house and kids with colds in the other. It was quite the experience.”
Welcoming his son to the practice
Kason was asked for his input in the development of Delta Hospital that began as an extended care facility before evolving into much more. He was also behind the development of the Harvest Drive Medical Building where he moved his practice to in 1986. He eventually welcomed his son Jason who continues his father’s legacy.
“He is the reason why I went into medicine. Just seeing what he did and the enjoyment he got out of his job,” said Jason. “He’s also instrumental of why I went into family medicine. He was the leading reason I do obstetrical care because he had so much fun doing it as a family doctor. That was one thing he pressed upon me was to make it part of my practice and it’s been one of the highlights of my medical career.
“He has had the enjoyment where he has delivered someone then 25 years later he delivers their kid.”
Kason said his son could work with him but it would only be under one condition.
“I said well you can come out here but you have to write me a cheque and buy me out of this place. You be my boss because I don’t want to be your boss. It’s worked out very well,” he said.
Kason added his retirement has been an adjustment if you can call it that.
He has offered his services for the COVID-19 vaccine roll out, is teaching classes to UBC students via Zoom, as well as doctors in Fraser Health on palliative care. Post-pandemic, his work in aviation and marine medicine will resume.
Still it’s all out of his Ladner “comfort zone.”
“It’s been such a privilege to look after these people and I am so grateful to them and sharing their lives. I know it sounds hokey but it’s the truth,” Kason added.
