Friday, June 04, 1999

A doctor who babies her patients

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Gretchen Serota, geriatric specialist, carries her infant daughter along on visits to nursing homes

BY JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Dr. Gretchen Serota and daughter Tziporah visit Virginia Brockman, 88, at SEM Haven in Milford. (Yoni Pozner photos) | ZOOM |

        Some of Dr. Gretchen Serota's patients don't see well anymore. So their eyes couldn't clearly focus on what the 37-year-old geriatrician brought to their nursing home nine months ago. Was it a cat? A puppy? Or was the doctor's arm in a sling?

        It was better than any of their guesses: It was a baby.

        Dr. Serota is medical director for several local nursing homes, including SEM Haven in Milford, where she is making her rounds this day. As always, her 9-month-old daughter Tziporah is in a cloth carrier, snug against her chest.

        The baby is sleeping when Dr. Serota enters Lucille Rubenacker's room. “Oh, you precious little thing,” the white-haired woman says, reaching for the child's arm. “You are a doll.”

Everyone has a story worth telling. At least, that's the theory. To test it, Tempo is throwing darts at the phone book. When a dart hits a name, a reporter dials the phone number and asks if someone in the home will be interviewed. Stories appear on Fridays.

        Tziporah (the name is Hebrew and means “little bird”) often naps through her mother's nursing home visits. But today the red-haired infant opens her blue eyes wide and arches her body back to see what is going on.

        At 84, Lucille is not too old to engage in some baby talk. Tziporah responds by reaching for the woman's nose.

        On visits like this, Dr. Serota's nursing home patients sometimes tell stories about their lives.

        The doctor could relate a story or two, too.

        She could tell them about being at work at TriHealth SeniorLink in Norwood on a Thursday afternoon last September. At 3:30, she called her husband, Slava, an associate professor of physics at the University of Cincinnati. She told him she would soon be arriving at their Anderson Township home to give birth. Which she did, at 5:40.

Tziporah, who often naps while making the rounds with her mother, cries as mom completes medical charts. | ZOOM |

        Tziporah is the couple's third child. Sheva, 6, and Asher, 4, also were born at home with assistance from a midwife.

        The following Monday happened to be Labor Day, so Dr. Serota waited until Tuesday to return to work. She took her newborn with her. She put her in one of those slings that mothers wear, laid a blanket over her and away they went.

        Dr. Serota could have taken time off, but says she'd just as soon not deal with the work that would've piled up. She could have found reliable child care, noting that both sets of grandparents are in town.

        But she believed that taking her daughter to work would provide “more continuity.” For both of them. Such an option wasn't possible with Dr. Serota's other children, who were born when she was in medical school and, later, a resident at Christ Hospital.

        Bringing along a baby “really wasn't that hard,” says Dr. Serota, a small woman with long blond hair pulled into a ponytail. “I didn't know how it was going to work out, or how long I was going to do it. But it worked out. I'm happy with it.”

        Most mornings mother and daughter spend a few hours at TriHealth SeniorLink, where Dr. Serota is medical director. The center offers adult day care and medical services to help the elderly stay out of nursing homes and hospitals.

        From there, they head to one or more of the 10 nursing homes where Dr. Serota sees patients with chronic medical problems such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and dementia.

        “I thought it would take me more time to do my work because of the baby,” she says. “But I'm taking more time because they all want to see her.”

        Linda Cook, the nursing supervisor at SEM Haven, says the residents “love pets and babies. They just go nuts about the baby. They can't remember her name, but they love her.”

        Administrator Barb Wolf adds that research has shown it's helpful for nursing home residents to be part of a “living environment,” one in which children, pets and plants help to shape it.

        Although Dr. Serota didn't have a therapeutic motive, she's seen the reaction her daughter gets from patients. “A lot of them love to see her.”

        Including Virginia Brockman. The 83-year-old woman sits in a chair in her room, oxygen tubes in her nose, a shawl around her shoulders.

        Shortly after Dr. Serota enters with Tziporah, Virginia says, “I expect the baby. In fact, I'm disappointed if the baby's not here.”

        A bit later, the child gets fussy. Virginia doesn't seem to mind. She is, after all, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

        Looking at Tziporah, she says, “They grow up so fast.”

       

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