-Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Dr. Lee Martin
Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
HE THOUGHT his mother was being unfair, forcing him to wash dishes, and clean house while his peers played football. Even while he attended the University of the West Indies, he had to cook on weekends when he came home.
But, now that he is a neurosurgeon, the successful medical practitioner who was one of nine children born to Delzine Martin, he spends a good half of his time trying to instill the same values his mother taught him into anyone who will listen, especially young boys.
Dr. Lee Martin, neurosurgeon and medical doctor for the Guardsman group, a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh was the main presenter at this year's Johnson and Johnson health education symposium for guidance counsellors and nurses in Kingston.
The boys who become men (physically and in the true, philosophical sense of the word) are more and more an endangered specie, he told the gathering of more than 200 people. He also noted that many males who end up in prison have been documented as having an intelligence quotient higher than average.
Right and wrong
"Many Jamaican males who are unemployed estimated at 300,000 in the 14 to 25 age group do not actually want to work," Dr. Martin told the gathering. Not coincidentally, it is this same age cohort that is over-represented in crime data.
"They are shottas, 'teenyboppers' with no concept of right and wrong," the doctor said.
Although he is a neurologist, the medical man is well-placed to pass such comments as he shares equal time between practising medicine and pursuing social work.
Dr. Lee Martin is also the medical director of the St. Pius X Clinic, Olympic Way and sits on three school boards, and for one of the schools, he also performs the role of dean of discipline.
His own life outcome could have been a very different one. In the 1950s after siring nine children, the father of Lee Martin migrated to the United Kingdom and apparently forgot about his Jamaican family. Left with her large brood in cramped living quarters in Denham Town, Mrs. Martin began to take in washing to support them. She also sold in Coronation Market, Kingston, and was to retire, eventually as an office helper.
Assistance
For herself and her children, life was very difficult indeed and Lee Martin remembers spending years walking to school, including Excelsior. The family was assisted by the good Catholics of St. Anne's with cornmeal and other basic supplies, but staples at the dinner table was the back of the chicken, callaloo and rice.
Lee and his siblings knew what hunger was and what it was to do without, but they were absolutely forbidden by their mother to beg. Not even relatives were ever to be told that they were in need. Lee walked from Denham Town to Excelsior to school and tried his best to make two dollars stretch each week for lunch money. At nights, the Martin brood slept on their sides to accommodate everyone on the bed.
The personal sacrifices of his mother are also still clear in Lee Martin's memory. At times she would go to bed without food. "Mother was a wonderful woman," he comments. "Hers was an iron hand with a velvet glove."
None of her nine children could come home with anything that did not belong to them.
Lee was to be the only son who went to high school as his mother poured all her resources into the son who wanted to become a doctor.
A mixture of scholarships, summer and part-time jobs he often could not get one because of his inner-city address and hard work have achieved the family's dream today.
Rewarding practice
His only disappointment, although he does not describe it as such, is that he was not permitted to work in the government service on returning from completing his studies in the U.K. However, he has found his current practice at the Guardsman group to be a very rewarding one.
Dr. Lee Martin is also a practitioner of complementary medicine, which involves treating people without using pharma-ceuticals. It is natural medicine involving the use of vitamins, nutritional supplements and other natural substances. He believes that the body, properly treated, will heal itself and has seen many successes with patients suffering from endometriosis, ulcerative colitis, hypertension and other conditions.
We ask why did he not return to the U.K. where he might have been earning in excess of £100,000 annually as a neuro-surgeon and he answers: "I have always wanted to give back. I love volunteerism."
We believe him, as he is scheduled to give talks every week, often giving as much as half of each day to such activities. He is also a part of the Father Ho Lung dramatic and singing group, performing in concerts in the Gun Court and other areas.
His wife and soul mate is registered nurse Colleen Martin who practices at Bustamante Hospital for Children and who has given him eight children. His large family includes his mother who now lives with him, and children Camille, Lee, Sherilee, Kieshalee, Annalee, Marville Lee, Cullen Lee and Serena. Camille, a United States soldier is off to Iraq and the others are in school and advanced programmes, including the violin and piano.
Total education
"I believe in total education," their father says.
In between his family, social work and medical practice, he finds time to read extensively including Greek mythology and law.
"Sometimes my day is not long enough," he admits. But he will not adjust his schedule.
There is time enough for everything apparently, if you want to do it badly enough, and if there are things in which you believe.
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