Defibrillators

Hunter is an internal medicine specialist, he helped persuade Decatur General Hospital to acquire its first echocardiogram machine in the mid-1980s and even helped operate it until the hospital’s first cardiologist arrived.

He said he is most pleased that Decatur heart patients can now receive stents to treat clogged arteries without having to go to Huntsville or Birmingham, as was the case several years ago.

Until last winter, Dr.

Hunter planned to work another four or five years, but the advancement of diabetes has robbed him of the stamina to work full time so he decided to stop.

He joked that sometimes he wonders what it would be like to be a dermatologist in Beverly Hills, but he said he looks back at his career with no regrets.

That especially includes the day he decided to attend Vanderbilt instead of Auburn.

The path taken At the time in 1953, engineering was all the rage, and Dr.

Hunter said he was accepted to Auburn with that pursuit in mind.

A relative, however, offered to help offset his expenses at Vandy as long as he chose a medical career.

Close friends advised him to go both ways, making his choice more difficult.

The answer came, he said, when he realized he was hesitant about Vanderbilt because he worried he couldn’t make the grades.

Rather than give in to fear, he said he accepted wha...

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