Part wo

Doc opened his first practice in Portsmouth, Virginia, in a ground-floor office on a busy street. He charged $3.00 per visit and set a revenue goal of $1,000 a month—surpassing that by $10 in just the first month. Later he bought a two-story house on a corner in the same neighborhood and fixed up the first floor for an office and lived on the second floor. During this time, Doc worked his own practice and also filled-in for another chiropractor who spent six months in Florida every year. One of his first patients was a professor of music and the organist at a large Methodist church who referred so many patients that Doc and Boots joined the church. That one patient helped to rapidly build his practice.

Once successful, Doc designed and built a house overlooking the Chesapeake Bay as well as a state-ofthe-art chiropractic clinic. His interests broadened, as he starting boating and invested in the new Continental football league with a team of four orthopedic surgeons who asked him to be the team chiropractor. His success and dedication to the profession resulted in several student referrals. He estimates referring a total of 12 students to Logan over the course of his career.

Dr. Purser has had some patients with symptoms so unusual that he still remembers them clearly:

“I had a young lady whose eyelids had became paralyzed when she became pregnant. Her physician had told her that after the baby was born her eyelids might open again. I wouldn’t X-ray her because of her pregnancy but after the second treatment she walked out with eyes open. This lasted about four hours but after each treatment they stayed open a bit longer and she was discharged after ten visits.”

“Another patient with chronic backache who worked checking trucks in and out of a coal yard had heart trouble. I recommended Vitamin E after a series of adjustments and he continued with the Vitamin E with no further heart trouble. He later opened a Tasty Freeze, then two more. Later he opened a wholesale Apple Jack business and was still going when I retired. No more heart problems.”

“A nine year old girl had crossed eyes and headaches. Her physician wanted to operate to tighten the muscle, which would help her eyes straighten. John Hopkins advised her not to have the surgery so she came to see me for another opinion. After her first neck treatment her eyes straightened and her headaches were gone. She won a beauty contest the following year and never needed to wear glasses.”

“I had one fellow who slipped on some icy stairs and landed on his back. He couldn’t stand and ended up in the hospital. His boss called me and then brought him to my office on a stretcher. We rolled him onto an adjusting table and I adjusted him. After about 30 minutes he walked to the reception room and held the door open for them to roll the stretcher out.”

“A lady working in the local drug store fell and landed on her back. She was off work for two months before she called and said she had not been to a chiropractor before but said she was desperate. I told her ‘no problem’. When she came in she wanted to know how long it would be before she could go back to work and I told her about two weeks. She went back to work in ten days but confided that she also had a problem fainting. I continued to adjust her and told her it might take several months to correct this other problem. It did, but she did recover from that as well.”

“A young man was going to medical school while his wife was a nurse at the Navy hospital. His father, mother and brother were all medical doctors. His brother worked as a surgeon in New York. He came to me about some back pain and stated that he knew nothing about chiropractic. I treated him and he felt better immediately. After about five treatments I discharged him. Because of his improvement he decided he wanted to become a chiropractor. I advised him to continue with medical school as his family was not supportive of this change. He was adamant and stated that ‘you go to an M.D. with back pain and they send you home with back pain and pills. You leave a chiropractor’s with no back pain and no pills.’ He and his brother both graduated from Logan in the end.”

He also finds humor in situations that others may have found to be difficult or frustrating. Dr. Purser always has a joyous attitude and seems to find every aspect of life and living as a fantastic adventure.

Doc talks about many chiropractic successes, fascinating legal cases, family adventures and current projects.