A doctor at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Texas was recently honored by one of her patients in a unique way.
Army veteran Roy Cadwalder named his newly born calf after Dr. Barbara Trautner, who has cared for him for more than two decades, according to a VA blog post.
“I have always adored Dr. Trautner,” said Cadwalder, who served in the Medical Corps in Vietnam. “She has been my doctor since right after she got out of med school. She’s taken excellent care of me over the years. I wanted to honor her and I thought having one of my precious cows named after her would make her smile.”
Related
When Cadwalder, a farmer who lives in Cleveland, Texas, had a new calf born in his herd on the exact day of his most recent medical appointment with Trautner, he decided to name her “Barbara.”
“This honor is written on my heart. It really has been a privilege caring for Mr. Cadwalder over the years. I know him well enough to know how much his calves mean to him,” said Trautner.
Trautner is an infectious diseases clinician-investigator who is also affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. At the Houston VA, she works with the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety (IQuESt).
She has two productive branches of investigation, one in health services research and one in microbiology translational research, both linked by a unifying focus on urinary tract infection.
Trautner is currently the director of Research Administration in the Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, a co-program director of the NHLBI T32 Training Program in Cardiovascular Surgery, and the director of the IQuESt Surgical Health Services Academy for Research and Education.
“It’s always a sign of love to name your little one after someone in your family, and I consider Dr. Trautner to be a part of my family,” said Cadwalder.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.