For 10,000 Babies, the Doctor’s In

Not many doctors make house calls anymore.

Fewer still make them in spiked heels.

And probably no one but Dr. Sakaye Shigekawa does it that way at age 75.

But what makes the diminutive doctor extraordinary in the eyes of the 250 well-wishers who came to her 75th birthday party at the Queen of Angeles Clinic in the Silver Lake area on Wednesday, is her record of delivering babies.

Shigekawa is one of the few doctors in this country to lay claim to delivering 10,000 babies--that’s an average of nearly five a week, every week, for 43 years.

“I hold her responsible for gridlock,” joked Barbara Perrow, chief operating officer for the nonprofit clinic, about the huge number of babies she brought into the community. Officials at Queen of Angels Medical Center where Shigekawa delivered the babies said it would be impossible to go through all the records but backed up the 10,000 number.

What makes it even more unusual is that Dr. Shigekawa is not a specialist in obstetrics. For 45 years she has operated a family practice in Los Angeles, taking on a wide spectrum of patients and illnesses and administering her own brand of old-fashioned health care.

‘Never Took Vacation’

But having started her career at a time when there were few women in medicine, Shigekawa said she naturally drifted into obstetrics. One referral led to another, and eventually to 10,000, until two years ago, when Shigekawa stopped delivering babies as malpractice insurance costs became too burdensome.

“Medicine has been my life and I’ve enjoyed it throughly,” Shigekawa said before the party. If I didn’ enjoy it, I wouldn’t be doing it. That’s what I tell my patients. Do what makes you happy.”

In her unusual career, Shigekawa--”Shigi” to her friends-- once delivered five babies in one day and delivered three sets of triplets.

“I don’t think most obstetricians have even one set of triplets,” she said. Shigekawa’s technique was often as unusual as her record.

At 4 feet, 7 1/2 inches, Shigekawa said “I am so short, I had to stand on a stool to do Caesarean (deliveries).” On normal deliveries, for which most doctors sit, Shigekawa stood.

Shigekawa, who looks far younger than her age, calls medical practice of the 1980s “cookbook medicine.”

“In our day we did not have all the modalities (tests) they have today, such as the CAT scan. We depended on what the patient told us to make a diagnosis.” And that is the way she continues her practice. “I like to take my time. You don’t make a lot of money that way, but it’s better.”

Her medical approach may be traditional, but her style is flamboyant. “Her outfits are incredible,” said Mary Jane Cox, chief of obstetrics at Queen of Angels Medical Center(cq), who has worked with Shigekawa for 20 years. “She’ll have a pink dress, pink hose and a hat to match . . . There’s a ring on every finger and different rings for every outfit,” said Cox who used Shigekawa to deliver her own first born.

“You’ve got to see it to believe it,” said Perrow of Shigekawa’s wardrobe and jewelry.

Shigekawa still makes house calls to her long-time patients, particularly the elderly who can’t easily get out. Her visits are so routine that Shigekawa planned to make a call to one 90-year-old patient on the way home from Wednesday night’s party.

“If they’ve been a patient, I’ll go out,” said Shigekawa, who is single. “Young doctors today say, ‘What can you do at home.’ I say, ‘If I can’t treat them at home, they should be in the hospital.’ ”

“Once I accepted a patient I never thought I could leave them,” said Shigekawa. “I felt guilty. I thought it was my responsibility. Other doctors said, ‘You’ll get over it.’ But I never did.”

Shigekawa was born in Pasadena and raised in Long Beach where her father operated a hog ranch. When her father had a long illness and hospitalization, Shigekawa would ride the streetcars to visit him at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Inspired by Doctors

“I was so impressed with the doctors,” she said. “They inspired me.” In particular, her father’s physician, the late Dr. William J. Norris of Beverly Hills, encouraged Shigekawa to go to medical school and the two enjoyed a long and close relationship until Norris’ death last year.

Shigekawa said she delivered her first babies at the Santa Anita internment camp during World War II. But even internment did not kill her spirit: Shigekawa volunteered for the U.S. Army Medical Corps, but was eventually rejected because she was under both the 5-foot and 105-pound minimum requirements.

But she has continued her regular family practice and said she will continue to “until my brain doesn’t function any longer. . . . I don’t have enough hobbies to keep busy.”