Dr. Joel Weigand

by Amber Countryman, Sumner Newscow —  Ever since he was in the eighth grade, Dr. Joel Weigand knew that he wanted to be a physician.

“My family used a family physician in Ottawa, and I got the impression that he was a very important person,” Weigand said. “I thought then that being a doctor would be a good thing to do.”

Dr. Weigand has recently retired from practicing medicine at the Ascension Via Christi clinic, leaving behind more than 50 years of medical experience – most of the time in Wellington.

Weigand earned his undergraduate medical degree from Kansas State University in 1966, and his doctorate degree from the University of Kansas medical school in 1970.

From 1970-1976, Weigand served as an active duty medical doctor in the U.S. Army. He had an internship at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, Calif. Then he did two years as a doctor in Germany working for the 14th Armored Calvary. During his career, he was stationed at the Silas B. Hays Hospital in California, Fort Sill in Lawton, Okla., and Germany.

Dr. Weigand in his earlier years.

In 1976, he began practicing at St. Luke’s Hospital in Wellington. After this, the hospital’s name changed to Sumner Regional Medical Center. That same year, doctors Anderson and Weigand founded the Sumner County Family Care Center and practiced in an office attached to St. Luke’s Hospital. Earlier this year, Ascension Via Christi purchased both the hospital and clinic.

With the addition of Dr. Steve Scheufler, Dr. Steve Hawks, Dr. Shana Jarmer, and Dr. Lacie Gregory, they had to move to a new location at 507 E. 16th St. Dr. Cooper Stewart joined them in 2019. They also practice with APRN Danica Wheeler, APRN Whitney Newberry, and Physician’s Assistant Candice Lira.

“My favorite thing about being a doctor is talking with and helping people,” Dr. Weigand said.

The biggest challenge of being a doctor is taking night and weekend calls, especially if you had a family. Only the last 20 years or so the emergency room has been covered by physicians who work those hours.

“When I first came here in 1976, my colleague Dr. (Larry) Anderson and I would work trade-off working every other night, and every other weekend in the ER for the first 20 years,” Weigand said. “It’s good to think of the lives I saved or influenced in that practice. I have a lot of good memories.”

Within the last 10-15 years, other doctors were specifically employed to cover the emergency room. When Dr. Weigand first started practicing in Wellington 45 years ago, there were 15 doctors in Sumner County, and now there are six.

“It’s hard to get doctors and their families to move to a small town,” he said. “When I came to town, there were six medical practices in town.”

Dr. Weigand has delivered approximately 1,500 babies in Sumner County within the last 45 years. He stopped delivering babies about 15 years ago.

“My favorite memory was when a patient came in and said that I delivered her,” he said. “I thought she meant her child, but she meant herself, and she was over 50 years old.”

Dr. Joel and Elaine Weigand and his family.

Dr. Weigand has seen many changes in medicine since he started practicing 51 years ago, including MRIs, CT Scans, and laparoscopic surgery. Another change he has seen is the use of a computer in the patient rooms, instead of hand-writing information on charts.

“There have been very big advances in medicine,” Dr. Weigand said. “In laparoscopic surgery, you can get a lot done with three little holes, instead of what used to be large incisions in gallbladder surgery.”

Family doctors used to do a lot of general surgery, but now everything is specialized.

The number of medicines compared to what we used to have, has grown astronomically.

“We didn’t have good ulcer medicines, antidepressants, or a variety of antibiotics,” Dr. Weigand said. “Compared to what we used to have, it’s astronomical.”

Infectious diseases are something he’s seen a downward trend in due to vaccinations.

Here is an article written after Dr. Larry Anderson and Dr. Joel Weigand celebrated 25 years of practicing medicine together. (Click to enlarge)

“I saw a lot of diseases when I first practiced we no longer see because of these vaccines,” Weigand said. “Cases of infectious disease have been cut down dramatically.

The current COVID-19 global health pandemic, Weigand believes, is not only a health issue but became a political issue. Although it usually takes years to study and develop a vaccine, the timeframe for the COVID-19 vaccination’s development was right at a year.

“This was the first-ever vaccine rushed in,” Dr. Weigand said. “But I think the vaccine is effective. If they do contract COVID, they’ll get lesser of the disease. The unusual things you hear about the vaccine probably aren’t true. There’s never been a vaccine that hasn’t been having side effects.”

Making people more comfortable as they get older has also seen a lot of advances, such as with hip and knee replacements.

“It’s mind-boggling how many advances in medicine there have been in the last 50 years,” Weigand said.

Weigand’s first wife, Elaine, died in 2011. For the past 8 ½ years, he has been married to Carol (Susong) Weigand, and together they have five children.