Dr. Leslie Cagle and Dr. Paul Dally have worked together so long that they’ve been confused for a married couple.
One time, at a work conference, while practicing surgery techniques on a pig, the two surgeons were asked by the person overseeing them: “So how long have you guys been married?” Zero years is the answer to that question, but Cagle and Dally have worked together for 29 total years.
“It’s your work family,” Cagle said.
At the end of this year, Cagle, 65, will alter her work family dynamics when she retires on Dec. 31 from her general and bariatric surgery position at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. She plans to visit Paris, France, for six months for fun, and then figure out the rest from there.
Cagle, who was raised in Louisiana, started working in Clark County in 1990, where she began as a general surgeon at the Vancouver Clinic. She likes general surgery because it’s similar to team sports.
“It’s everybody working together,” Cagle said. “That’s actually been the funnest part. Everybody is working together to see what you can do for the patient.”
Cagle has broken ground on surgeries in Clark County. She did the first fecal transplant in the county, where you take someone else’s poop and give it to the patient to recolonize their colon. She was a founder of the bariatric surgery program at PeaceHealth, and performed the county’s first laparoscopic cholecystectomy, or gallbladder removal, in 1990. Laparoscopic surgery, or keyhole surgery, is when surgeons use small incisions to perform surgery. The less-invasive surgery means less risk and quicker recovery for the patients.
Cagle learned much of her laparoscopy skills in Scotland from Sir Alfred Cuschieri, a Maltese-British pioneer in the field of keyhole surgery. Cagle was the first woman he took as a registrar.
Cagle has served as an inspiration to women in medicine, said friend and colleague Dr. Andrea Lange, who is a colon and rectal surgeon at PeaceHealth. Lange was recruited to Vancouver Clinic by Cagle while finishing a fellowship in Pennsylvania in 1990. Lange explained that many women in surgery were working in breast surgery, and that it was exciting to see someone like Cagle, who was excelling in an innovative area such as laparoscopy.
“She made you want to come out and help and be part of it,” Lange said.
Cagle said the number of women in surgery in Clark County increased significantly since she came.
“It has been fun seeing other gals,” Cagle said. “Just like it’s fun having your buds, it’s fun having guys and gals on a team. I think it works out nicely.”
While Cagle and Dally have worked together nearly 30 years, they’ve also worked with Dr. Steven Matous for about 25 years. The trio’s bond is Cagle’s favorite part of her career, she explained.
“I’ve worked with the same couple of guys for all these years,” Cagle said. “If you talk to surgeons at meetings, there are some that kept the same job the whole time, but not that many. And not that many people work with the same buds for 30 years.”
Dally said that he greatly respects Cagle’s professionalism and ethical judgment.
“We do a lot of things for people that most people go to jail for doing. We cut across the esophagus. We cut across the aorta,” Dally said. “They’re basically dead there for a period of time, unless you fix them. Sometimes you need moral balance just to always make sure you’re doing the right thing. Even though you can do something, should you do it?”
Cagle said she respects Dally’s work ethic and dependability. They work shorter hours now than they did when they would pull 80 to 100 hours a week, but the job has been a grind. Cagle said Dally never made excuses, and always put work first.
“If you called Dr. Dally in the night, he only said, ‘I’ll be right there,’ ” Cagle said. “It’d be like 2 o’clock in the morning, he’d have been up the whole day before, he had plans the next day, and he wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, you got to be kidding.’ ”
Dally said he likes the whole surgical team he works with, but did admit he’ll miss Cagle once she retires.
While Cagle has loved her career, she said now is the right time to step down.
“I worry a little bit about surgeons that if you kind of get too old you may not be at the top of your game,” Cagle said. “I’m still at the top of my game so it’s a good time to retire.”
