Page 26 - HCMA Fall 2021
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Alliance News
Medical marriages succeed if you’re a team (a medical love story):
Bill and Madelyn Butler
Michael Kelly michael19452000@yahoo.com
   It all started in Bartow, Florida at a family party. Bill was 19 and Madelyn was 15. For both, it was love at first sight. That said, there was the obvi- ous age difference, so Madelyn’s Cuban immigrant father and mother closely watched and supervised the young- sters.
Bill remembers going over to Mad- elyn’s house, sitting in one place on the couch in the living room and watching TV with the family. When Madelyn turned 16, she was allowed to go out in groups
that included Bill, and there was al- ways an early curfew.
As Madelyn watched her father, a Spanish speaking physician in his native Cuba, study for his Veteri- nary Boards in English, she learned a valuable lesson in perseverance and commitment. With a family to support, and the pathway to be- coming a physician in the United States too long, her father had cho- sen a shorter route to a profession that would allow him to provide for his family in the US. He passed his Boards on his first attempt, and the memory of this accomplishment has stayed with Madelyn to this day.
Bill and Madelyn dated for nine
years, while he and then she were
undergraduates at the University of
Florida. Bill majored in advertising
and marketing and had received his BA degree when he asked Madelyn to marry him - before she entered medical school. She accepted his proposal and they were married in Bartow. Being a young medical couple and unable to afford a mortgage, Bill remained in Bartow, living with Madelyn’s parents and com- muting to work in Orlando. He visited Madelyn on weekends.
In medical school, it was Madelyn’s plan to specialize in pe- diatrics, but after a rotation that saw her up many a night, she began to question her choice. Then came the OB/GYN rotation, and she knew what she wanted to do. During her OB/GYN resi- dency at the University of South Florida, Bill and Madelyn were able to live together. Their first child, Olivia, was born during Madelyn’s third year of residency. She got her first job while pregnant with her second child, Christian.
By this time, Bill, who had been supporting their young fam- ily while Madelyn was in school, residency and newly in prac- tice, entered the public arena as a candidate for state office. At that point, three things occurred that would test their marriage.
Bill lost the election, Madelyn was let go from her group and Christian was born. Fortunately, Bill was still employed.
For her part, Madelyn joined a small OB/GYN practice of four young physicians as one of the first women OB/GYN physicians in Tampa. She became a partner in the group just before they merged with a larger group, only to find out that she was not to be part of the merger with the new practice group which, for political reasons, did not want to include her.
After several successful inter- views Madelyn realized that her standards for the ideal practice en- vironment exceeded existing op- portunities. So, with Bill’s emotion- al and financial support, Madelyn opened her own practice, with the
goal of building an all-woman practice. To make this happen, Madelyn accepted less compensation than the women physi- cians she hired. Nighttime would find Bill and Madelyn togeth- er working on the business aspects of her practice. Her practice was founded on the principles of Mission, Vision and Values, concepts she had read about and in which she believed.
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HCMA BULLETIN, Vol 67, No. 2 – Fall 2021













































































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