'He was a doctor to the end:' Dr. Griner focused life on his patients

In his last hours, Dr. Paul Griner, the former chief executive of Strong Memorial Hospital, became his own patient.

“He was a doctor to the end,” said his daughter, Laura Hill of Pullman, Washington. “He was narrating his own death to us as he was dying. ‘This is happening to my heart, to my lungs’. He was unafraid. He said several times, ‘I’m on the right path.’ It was remarkable, really beautiful.”

Dr. Griner died of heart failure on June 24, in Weston, Mass. at age 91. His wife, Margaret, had died the week before.

His son Paul Jr. of Louisville, a novelist and professor, was also at his father’s side when he died.

Paul recalled there was a moment a few days before his death when Dr. Griner was undergoing painful leg spasms and asked everyone to leave the room. He knew it was distressing for them to watch him suffer, Paul said.

That was proof of the empathy Dr. Griner brought to any medical situation.

“He felt his patient’s lives and losses immensely, which is brave for a physician to do,” Paul said. “It can lead to enormous pain, and yet he opened himself to that.”

A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Griner graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and the University of Rochester Medical School in 1959.

He interned at Massachusetts General Hospital and served in the Air Force at Walter Reed Hospital.  He returned to Rochester and Strong Hospital in 1964 and specialized in hematology, the treatment of blood disorders.

Dr. Griner led Strong from 1984 to 1995, a period when the hospital was pressured to rein in costs and, at the same time, invest in new technology. It was “Cadillac quality of care in a Chevrolet economy,” he once said.

All the while, Dr. Griner insisted that physicians needed to focus on their patients, to sit at their sides, to hear their stories.

“Listening is probably the thing that tied everything together for him,” his daughter said. “Listening to the trends in scholarly literature, listening to people’s ideas, listening to patients, and using all that information to benefit patients and medical care in general.”

There are countless stories of Dr. Griner practicing what he preached.

One of most compelling is the account of his treatment of the then 21-year-old Douglas Handler of Fairport from late August 1975 to the middle of January 1976.

Dr. Griner wrote about Handler’s near-death episode of aplastic anemia, as has Barbara Ficarrra for the medical center.

Essentially, Dr. Griner first determined the cause of Handler’s baffling illness. Though all signs pointed toward a sad end, Dr. Griner fought until he was presented with a possible solution. It worked. Handler walked out of the hospital and back into his life.

Married and the father of three children, Handler, 70, is retired and living in Alabama. He stayed in connection with Dr. Griner, updating him on his life, the life he saved. They talked by telephone on the day before Dr. Griner died.

“He was a man of incredible, gentleness, empathy, compassion and faith,” Handler said.  “He was also a great role model, I wanted to dress like him, carry myself like him.”

Dr. Griner served in a variety of national posts, including as president of the American Academy of Physicians. He consulted on health policy nationally and was the author of two books, including The Power of Patient Stories: Learning Moments in Medicine, and 140 medical articles. He also was a life trustee of the University of Rochester.

He and his first wife, Miriam, were married for 49 years before her death in 2005. He and Margaret, his twin brother John’s widow, were married in 2008.

In addition to his daughter and son, he is survived by his stepchildren, John, Kathryn and Gregg Griner, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Memorial services in Boston and Rochester are yet to be scheduled.

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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Dr. Paul Griner was a respected physician, executive: Lives remembered