“Do the right thing, son.”
— Dr. Thomas M. “Peter” Blake (1920-2002)
Dr. James M. “Spunk” Brock, Jr. of the McComb Skin Clinic, a second-generation dermatologist and a fourth-generation physician, responded to my May column which closed with a mention of Dr. Peter Blake’s oft-repeated maxim, “Do the right thing.”[1] Dr. Brock had heard the maxim directly from Dr. Blake and wrote to clarify my incomplete reference, commenting: “The complete command of Dr. Peter Blake: ‘Do the right thing, son.’ (With apologies to the distaff members of the profession.)” I love how Dr. Brock refers to this aphorism as a moral imperative of medicine: Dr. Peter Blake’s command. The addition of the paternalistic “son” simply clarifies what was actually said in that era when female medical students were few and far between. Dr. Blake’s command was spoken by him as an attending physician to medical students and residents in answer to their repeated questions of “What do I need to do to treat this patient?” His simple response to “do the right thing” was a guiding principle for their medical decision-making, embracing both beneficence and nonmaleficence in order to provide patients the best care possible.
Dr. Thomas M. “Peter” Blake (1920-2002) was and remains a legendary figure at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. After training in cardiovascular research at Vanderbilt, he came to work for Dr. J. R. Snavely at the Medical Center when the four-year School of Medicine and the Medical Center opened in 1955. Blake created the hospital’s heart catheterization lab and became the Medical Center’s authority on electrocardiography. He also organized the primary course in physical diagnosis at the new medical school, a course that is still taught, now entitled “Introduction to Clinical Medicine.” This is the final class that second-year medical students complete before initiating their clinical years, a foundational course for future physicians. Blake taught generations of medical students not only how to read an EKG but also how to take a history, do a physical, and take a review of systems. This course which he crafted was basically how to practice medicine. He officially retired in 1990, but continued to teach EKG interpretation half-days (teaching me in 1992). His avocation as a photographer positions him as the Medical Center’s unofficial documentary historian. His numerous black-and-white photographs reveal with perceptive detail multiple decades of the daily life of the institution he so long served before his death in 2002.
Dr. Brock was a medical student in Jackson from 1971-1975 and remembers Dr. Peter Blake with warmth, admiration, and appreciation. He writes, “In your senior year you could spend a month with Dr. Blake in the bowels of UMMC reading EKGs, and he signed his reports with a fountain pen. How classy is that? Dr. Blake was small in stature. He had trouble walking somewhat because of an automobile accident in his past, but he always had a twinkle in his eye. He was kind, soft-spoken and his most famous request, command, instruction was ‘Do the right thing, son.’ On first hearing that, a lot of us thought it was silly and didn’t mean much, but it didn’t take long for one to realize that Dr. Blake was speaking a great moral truth. A large percentage of the time, we know what the right thing to do is and because of lack of courage and laziness, we don’t do it. What Dr. Blake was doing was encouraging our moral fortitude, and our refusal to be slothful in our endeavors in medical school and beyond.” Blake’s positive influence on his students is still cherished by them, and his famous command to “Do the right thing” be you a son or a daughter, still possesses extraordinary power and moral direction for all physicians.
Contact me at drluciuslampton@gmail.com. — Lucius M. Lampton, MD, Editor
J. M. Brock, Jr., MD (email communication, August 14, 2023) in ref. to Lampton, LM. Two Latin phrases every physician should know. J Miss State Med Assoc. 2023; 64 (5): 136.