G.B. ESPY, ME 57
Qgcord Setter .B. Espy had a tough row to hoe after graduating from Tech just getting to medical school at Tulane University. "Because I was a coop at Tech, that was five years. I was broker than the Ten Commandments. So the year afterward I literally had three full-time jobs. I taught three five-hour courses in math for four quarters. I had a full 40-hour job at the research center, where I could work day or night. I had a full-time job tutoring," Espy said. "I saved up enough money to go through three years of medical school." More hard work was ahead as an Army obstetrician /gynecologist stationed at Fort McPherson in Georgia. "It was during the Vietnam War, and we were working OB calls 15 nights out of the month and the emergency room all night another five. We were taking care of every military dependent for the Army, Marines, Air Force. I think 1 delivered 500 babies that year," Espy recalled. Financially struggling to fund his Tech education and physically struggling to meet his military obligation instilled in him a strong work ethic, one that continues to this day. At 74, Espy has no interest in retirement. "I'm credited from the time I started my residency, military and 42 years of private practice with delivering over 12,000 babies, supposedly more than any other doc in history in Georgia," said Espy during a break from seeing patients at his Marietta, Ga., office.
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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine
When pressed, Espy tries to whittle his long obstetrics career down to a single memorable moment. "Late one night, this was 35 years ago when we did not have anesthesiologists who stayed on the unit all night, I was listening for the baby's heartbeat, the nurse was listening for the heartbeat, and we could not pick it up. I physically picked this lady up, carried her to the elevator, took her up one floor, put her in an operating room as people rushed in instruments and, under local anesthesia, I did a Caesarian section. This baby would have died. "About 22 years later, I delivered the baby of that baby," Espy said. His humanitarian work is just as memorable. Espy has made about a dozen overseas missions. "One of the super, super highlights was I went to the Kosovo war and delivered babies of refugees and did surgery in 1998," said Espy, who received a community service award from an Atlanta television station for that mission. "I've brought over three or four children from war-torn countries and had them operated on and covered their expenses," said Espy, who most recently made it possible for a 7-year-old Iraqi boy to come to Atlanta for a bone-lengthening operation. "He hadn't walked since he was 2. He'd had 11 operations, and they were going to amputate his leg. For six months, I worked day and night trying to get a visa for him and his father," said Espy, who covered the family's expenses and convinced the surgeon and hospital to waive their fees. In late August, the little boy, Muham-
November/December 2009
mid, appeared at a fundraising dinner for humanitarian work in Iraq. "For the first time since he was 2, he walked across the stage," Espy said, "to thunderous applause." Espy himself has received plenty of applause. In 2004, the Medical Association of Georgia presented him the Jack A. Raines Humanitarian of the Year Award. In 2005, the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech gave him its Distinguished Alumnus Award. His latest mission is not for glory, the