Dr. Charles McGinty

Dr. Charles Patterson "Charlie" McGinty Sr., 85, passed away Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010, in Cape Girardeau, with his beloved wife, Martha Lou, and their five children at his bedside.

He is survived by his wife; children, Becky Mocherman (Rodger), Charles "Chuck" McGinty Jr. (Laura), Jane Courter, Dr. Frank McGinty (Bipi), and Margaret Yates (Ted); 12 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

McGinty was born Feb. 19, 1925, in Guntersville, Ala., to Hilary Herbert "H.H." McGinty and Minerva "Minnie Lou" Finney. They later moved to Cape Girardeau when his father became pastor of First Baptist Church.

His sisters, Martha Oxenfeldt and Mary Pedaris, are living.

He attended Franklin Elementary School, where he first met his future wife of 67 years, Martha Lou Foster, youngest daughter of Franklin Pierce Foster and Martha Ellen McQueen Foster.

He then went on to Cape Girardeau Central High School where he was a member of the 1942 Central High School football team under coach Lou Muegge that was undefeated and unscored upon, and then Southeast Missouri State Teachers College (Southeast Missouri State University) graduating in 24 months with B.S. and B.A. degrees while in the U.S. Navy V-12 program.

From there he went on to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for four years, graduating in 1949, and then into a seven-year surgical residency training program at Washington University and Barnes Hospital. Two of these years were spent at Fort Leonard Wood as a military base surgeon. His chief residency year was completed at St. Luke's Hospital in St. Louis in June 1955.

After returning to Cape Girardeau in July 1955 to start his practice, he became the first board-certified general surgeon and member of The American College of Surgeons in Southeast Missouri in 1957. He began practice with a multidisciplinary surgical group. The Surgical Clinic Inc. was created in 1964 with Dr. Melvin C. Kasten for the practice of general surgery. Later that decade, Dr. Jerry L. Kinder and Dr. Robert S. Hunt joined the group. The group name was later changed to Cape Girardeau Surgical Clinic in 1973. It continues to this day as a six-man general surgery group independently serving both local hospitals and a large area of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

Later in his career he served as medical director and physician for Southeast Missouri Hospital Hospice Program, served as a medical expert for legal matters and quality of care issues, performed workers compensation ratings and disability determinations in cases of personal injury for the Social Security Administration.

His numerous contributions to medicine included president and founding member of Missouri Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, member of the Cancer Commission of The American College of Surgeons for 10 years during which he traveled nationally to inspect cancer programs for quality and certification, founding member of Southeast Missouri Professional Standards Review Committee, vice president of Missouri State Medical Association, president of Cape Girardeau County Medical Society, president and one of the original planners of Cape Girardeau Doctors Park Inc. He was a founding member of the Doctors Park Ambulatory Surgery Center, the first ambulatory surgery center in Missouri.

In addition, he was the first surgeon to perform lung and esophageal surgery in Cape Girardeau, instrumental in the first use of intestinal staplers, insertion of the first heart pacemakers, first surgical treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, and involved in recruitment of the first MD anesthesiologist to Cape Girardeau in 1960.

Furthermore, he helped establish the first private ambulance service in the area in the 1960s with George Rouse and later was involved in campaigning for the successful passage of Missouri Senate Bill 238, which concerned licensing and regulation of ambulance services and emergency medical care in Missouri.

He was involved in development of the first "Code Blue" teams for response to cardiac arrest in the hospitals and emergency rooms, the first intensive care units in the hospitals, the use of Total Parenteral Nutrition for nutritional support in surgical patients, and the first to use a "respirator" (brought by the highway patrol from St. Louis) to treat a patient with a crushed chest.

Numerous medical and professional society memberships included The American College of Surgeons, The American Board of Surgery where he served as an examiner for the certification examination, Missouri Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, Missouri State Surgical Society, Missouri State Medical Association, Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, Missouri Professional Standards Review Council, Southeast Missouri Professional Standards Review Organization, and the Cape Girardeau County Medical Society during which he served as president and editor of the County Medical Journal.

Local hospital medical staff positions included medical staff president, Credentials Committees, Cancer Committees, Institutional Review Committees, Pain Management Team (during which the Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA pump) was started), member of the hospital board of directors, and member of the St. Louis-Cape Girardeau Community Clinical Oncology Program.

He published numerous articles, videos and editorials concerning general surgery and medical politics, the most notable two of which concern the early development of stapled intestinal anastomoses, which now is known in stapling textbooks as the "McGinty Method."

He was always "teaching" nurses, assistants and operating room staff and many still talk about their learning experiences with him. He was a true surgical pioneer for Southeast Missouri and our local medical community, an innovator ahead of his time in many ways, and a tireless advocate, defender and spiritual saint for many of his patients. No one came between him and his patients best interest.

There will be no public visitation or funeral. The family will have a private service.

Contributions or gifts may be made to the Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation.

Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.