When Winter Came: A Country Doctor’s Journey to Fight the Flu Pandemic of 1918

Summary

Mary Beth Sartor Obermeyer grew up listening to her grandfather, Dr. Pierre Sartor, describing his remarkable life, including his collaboration with Mayo Clinic, which spanned several decades.

Long after Dr. Sartor died, Beth found a handwritten memoir of his experiences caring for patients during the influenza pandemic of 1918 nestled among other family documents in a lockbox.

Thus began the journey. Beth used her skills as a journalist to discover how Dr. Sartor saved lives amid a global crisis … how he won the love of his patients throughout his career … and how he earned the respect of his colleagues, who named him Iowa’s General Practitioner of the Year.

Beth tells the story of her grandfather—a compassionate, skilled physician who does the best of things in the worst of times—with warmth and wisdom.

Medicine has changed greatly since her grandfather practiced on the Midwestern prairie, but however winter may come to each of our lives, we all want a doctor like Pierre Sartor.