Hattiesburg cardiologist Ben Carmichael looks similar to John Ingle, the soap star on Guiding Light who briefly played the second Mickey Horton on the long-running NBC daytime series Days of Our Lives.

 

With his southern charm and genteel manner, Carmichael acts a bit like him, too.

 

And that's a very good thing. Around Hattiesburg, Carmichael is a star.

 

Last year, the doctor who pioneered cardiology in South Mississippi and counts former U.S. presidents among his patients, officially retired from his medical practice. In doing so, he left behind a record book of milestones since Forrest General Hospital administrator Lowery Woodall and Hattiesburg Clinic physicians Fred Tatum and Richard Clark recruited him as the area's first board-certified cardiologist in June 1974. At the time, the hospital's heart program consisted of a four-bed coronary care unit (CCU).

 

Two years after arriving in Hattiesburg, Carmichael performed the first Swan-Ganz flow-directed catheter implant. He made history by performing the area's first cardiac catheterization, which led to the development of the hospital's Center of Cardiac Excellence, better known as the Southern Heart Center.

 

"In the 1970s, the cardiology department saw approximately 1,200 patients per year," said Carmichael. By 2003, that number had skyrocketed to 180,000 annual patients seen by seven cardiologists and three cardiovascular surgeons.

 

With Thomas Messer, MD, Carmichael performed the first angioplasty, which "brought a whole new level of technology to Forrest General, and that's something we associate with Dr. Carmichael," said Messer. "He had a great idea of where he wanted to go with Forrest General. He always brought good quality people to the cardiology team to make it grow, and did lots of great things to direct and lead cardiology."

 

Carmichael was instrumental in developing the hospital's cardiac catheterization lab because he wanted local patients to have "state-of-the-art, quality medicine at home without traveling to New Orleans or Jackson to get things done," he explained. He also implemented the hospital's remote cardiac monitoring system, and advanced the CCU.

 

"It was virtually unheard of to have a cath lab where you didn't have open heart surgery," said Sandy Jones, director of Forrest General's cardiac catheterization lab, who was hired as a radiological technologist in 1977 during the CCU's early days. 

 

Janet Martin Baucum, RN, who served in the CCU when it first opened in 1968, said Carmichael "worked diligently with our CCU physicians and staff to move the CCU forward, with patience and determination, as knowledge and technology evolved."

 

Carmichael also installed the area's first transvenous flow-directed pacemaker and developed the nuclear cardiology program at Hattiesburg Clinic.

 

"Dr. Carmichael was the kind of partner that everyone would like to have," said Thad Waites, MD, a cardiologist with Hattiesburg Clinic. "He paved the way for all of us. He was our leader, but was also very much a hard-working part of the team. Somehow, at the same time, he took extra good care of his patients and was a very important part of the community, his church and the university."