After 37 years, pediatrician retires

BANGOR- When Dr. Leonardo Leonidas opened his practice in Bangor in 1972, he was one of just four pediatricians serving the area. A lot has changed since then. Diagnostic medical tests such as sonograms, magnetic resonance imaging and computerized axial tomography, now commonplace, were unheard of. Childhood obesity and its complications were rare. Most people had health insurance.

Earlier this week, Dr. Leo was sorting through the material remains of his 37-year practice, preparing to examine a few last patients and then close his doors for good at the end of the day. About 1,500 families were notified last month that they would have to find another doctor for their children.

“They are crying; they don’t want me to leave,” Leonidas said. “I’ve been telling them to look for another doctor. I’m not making any referrals or recommendations except in a few special cases.”

Leonidas earned his medical degree in 1968 from the University of the Philippines in Manila. He fulfilled a one-year general practice internship at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, N.Y., and then a pediatric residency at the New Jersey College of Medicine in Newark.

During that time, he visited Bangor with his roommate, whose uncle was the caretaker of a Bangor estate. It must have been a pleasant weekend, he said, because when his residency was through, he headed back to Bangor.

“My wife and I honeymooned on Cape Cod,” he recalled, “and on the map, Bangor was only one inch away.” He borrowed a suit from his friend’s uncle and met with Robert Brandow, then the head of Eastern Maine Medical Center. Within a few months, Leonidas opened a solo practice near the Brewer Auditorium. A year later, the office moved to State Street in Bangor, near the historic fire station, and then into offices in Wing Park, one of the historic homes owned by the hospital. In 1991, he relocated for the last time, to the suite he’s now vacating at Evergreen Woods, off Mount Hope Avenue.

Children he treated in the early years are grown now, and many bring their own children to be seen by Dr. Leo.

But over the course of his career, Leonidas has done more than provide essential health care for two generations of Bangor-area kids. He also has developed an approach to nurturing the emotional and intellectual growth of children, beginning in their prenatal days.

For example, he said in his Spanish-inflected accent, “If a mama is pregnant and she is stressed-out, the stress hormone goes to the baby, and this can result in language delays and cognitive problems.” If women are protected during pregnancy from stress, anxiety and other negative emotions, he said, their babies will be emotionally and neurologically healthier at birth and less likely to develop attention deficits, learning disorders and other problems.

He advises parents to protect their children’s developing brains against environmental poisons, including mercury and lead. He recently caused a stir when he proposed that the Bangor Water District stop adding fluoride to the public water supply.

Public health officials encourage communities to fluoridate their water to protect children’s teeth against decay, but some critics, including Leonidas, say the additive is now present in so many prepared foods and drinks that public water fluoridation should be discontinued to prevent overloading youngsters.

Dr. Leo tells parents of newborns that it’s never too early to begin teaching basic language and math concepts, and he has written at least two books on the subject. Parents should convey to their children the consistent expectation that they will achieve a graduate degree before marrying and starting a family, he says. He’s hard-core about restricting television time.

Leonidas’ young patients and their parents may have a hard time finding a new doctor – especially those who are covered by MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income individuals.

Reimbursements from the program are so low and the paperwork so burdensome, Leonidas said, that many pediatricians and family doctors won’t take new MaineCare patients. In fact, he said, the whole process of billing insurance companies and other payers has become so complicated that it’s driving many doctors out of private practice altogether.

“If there were no paperwork, I would love to stay in practice,” he said. “With all the insurance paperwork, doctors today don’t have enough time to read and think.”

Leonidas, who is 64, said he plans to return with his wife, Thelma, to the Philippines for a speaking tour to promote his child-rearing ideas. When they return to Maine, he hopes to line up more speaking engagements to medical providers, teachers and other groups. He’s working on a book about pregnancy, which he hopes to finish once he hangs up his stethoscope.

Will that be enough to keep him busy?

“I’m really ambivalent,” he said. “I’ve been saying I’m not really retiring, just going on vacation for a year or two.”

After that, he said, maybe he’ll open a new, part-time practice – one that doesn’t take insurance payments.

Many of Leonidas’ child care ideas are posted on his Web site, www.brilliantbaby.com.

mhaskell@bangordailynews.net

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