Dr. J. Dan Ledding retires after 55 years in medicine

By David McIver

ROSETOWN – Dr. J. Dan Ledding of Rosetown is retiring Friday after a 55-year medical career in which the 79-year-old physician has seen the good, the bad and the sometimes goofy.

Overall, Ledding said he has found great satisfaction as a family doctor, working with patients at both ends of life.

Dr. J. Dan Ledding. PHOTO BY DAVID MCIVER

“You always look to cure people, but sometimes that’s not possible. Sometimes the disease is not curable. You try to comfort them and help them cope better. That’s the key thing,” he said.

“You try to focus on making the time they have left as good as it can be,” Ledding added. That includes practical measures, such as lifts and comfort care for the patient.

The focus, he said, is “not so much on dying but preparing for eternity, while also treating the patient and their family and helping them cope through it all.”

That means working as part of a team that addresses “all aspects of medicine,” including the psychological, social and spiritual, he said.

Ledding has also enjoyed working at the start of life, in obstetrics and delivering babies, and supporting life from conception to natural death, such as his participation in the 1983 Run for Life.

He praised the nursing staff he has worked with over the years.

Originally from Biggar, Ledding graduated in medicine from the University of Saskatchewan in 1970 and interned at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, as did his older brother Dave. He followed that with a year in internal medicine in Saskatoon, work in anaesthesia, and then practice in Biggar.

Ledding came to Rosetown on March 1, 1974, to replace Dr. Grant Gibbings and join brother Dave, Dr. Hank Biem and Dr. Alf Ernst in general practice.

“Many things have changed since then,” he said.

At one point, when Dr. Dave was sick, Ledding and Ernst were very, very busy. The Ledding brothers began recruiting South African doctors to help meet the need.

Until recently, local doctors could perform gallbladder surgery, tonsillectomies and hernia repairs, Ledding said.

Thanks to the Alex Ositis Foundation, itinerant doctors can use equipment here purchased by the foundation, including endoscopes and arthroscopes. Ledding said bringing specialists to Rosetown for medical programs – initiated by his brother Dave – has been another source of satisfaction for him, as he has administered anaesthesia for many of these programs.

“It shortens city hospital waiting lists and is especially important for older local people who can’t travel,” he said.

However, the paperwork doctors must complete has become “fairly consuming,” taking more time than seeing patients, Ledding said. “It just got worse over the years,” often keeping him at work until midnight.

Accessing consultants has also become “more and more difficult,” with waits of up to a year to see an ear, nose and throat specialist, he said.

With no obstetrics practice between the Alberta border and Saskatoon, some patients end up delivering in Rosetown because they cannot get to the city on time, Ledding added.

Asked how he has made it through 55 years of medical practice, including two bouts with COVID-19, Ledding credited his family.

“I would never survive without having a wonderful wife and family,” he said, referring to his children Andrea, Matthew, Kevin and Tim. He said Rosetown “was a good place to raise our four children.”

Ledding also highlighted his upbringing. His father, Marvin, a son of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants, valued education and was the campaign manager for Woodrow Lloyd during the launch of Medicare. His mother, Nora, of Irish heritage, “kept the home fires burning,” he said. Ledding also commended the teachers at St. Gabriel’s School.

Reflecting on his long career, Ledding said simply: “You certainly can’t do it by yourself. You need Jesus on your side.”