By By MARCIA STEFFENS / Niles Daily Star
CASSOPOLIS – A void has come to the Borgess Lee Medical Group in Cassopolis with the unexpected death of Dr. Mark William Lay.
He died in his sleep on Thursday, Sept. 20, while on a vacation in Southern Indiana, after a day of biking, hiking and swimming outdoors.
Lay, 53, came in the beginning of the year from Watervliet Community Hospital to fill in at the Cassopolis office at 117 S. Broadway, in the municipal building.
He replaced Dr. Farrukh Ambareen, who went with her husband, Dr. Mohammad Taqi, both internists, to Florida in the middle of December.
Before becoming a certified family practitioner, Lay was a computer system analyst, working with cardiac cat scans and business applications.
A Wisconsin native, he studied in both Milwaukee and Cleveland, Ohio, where he did his residency in Ohio.
He worked in Nebraska for two years, returning to Black River Falls, Wis., and then to Madison, where he was in private practice for four years, before the practice was sold.
In Michigan, first in Kalamazoo, he received a master's in medical administration and for Bronson was the medical director of the community health center in Jackson.
Like many times before, Lay was in a temporary position, helping where a doctor was needed. Enjoying learning new things, he also agreed to be the deputy medical examiner, to allow Dr. Robert Knox a vacation.
Knox, who has practiced medicine for 47 years in Edwardsburg, has served as medical examiner for Cass County since 1964.
Lay leaves behind two daughters, his mother and five siblings. A memorial service was held on Sunday, Sept. 30 in Kalamazoo.
The doctor enjoyed reading, friends, ice cream and riding his recumbent bike.
When interviewed in January, he said he liked to give his patients options in their treatment and care.
"I open their minds and help them understand the pros and cons," he added.
The risks have to be weighed against the benefits, when it comes to drug therapy, he said.
Everything must be balanced with what is important to the patient, he said, such as their finances, whether they will be able to pay for prescriptions.
"I am invited into their lives. There is such variation, it is never boring. I am always learning something new," he said.
He found his profession both an art, balancing knowledge gained from statistics, such as drug tests, side effects and results and also a challenge.
If there was anything he dreaded, it was all the paperwork and time he needed to file reports and make sure such documentation meets regulations, whether it is so one patient could receive a wheelchair, or a procedure is coded properly so the patient was covered by insurance.
He will be missed by the staff at the Cassopolis clinic whom he praised.
"They are amazing – their compassion for patients who come in. They are nonjudgemental and supportive. They also are creative and motivated to make things better, to improve care," he said.
"I only worked with and knew him for the past 10 months, but it feels like I knew him forever and I wish I would have," said the doctor's medical assistant Sheila Ward of Cassopolis.
"He truly cared about his patients. He always went the extra mile," she added.
His patients too found him to be caring. "It was great to know that doctors like Mark are still in existence even though we live in a microwave, fast, in and out world. He always took the time to seek that the issues were dealt with. He will surely be missed," said Helene Croom of Cassopolis, on his guest book.
Kimberly Wilson of Edwardsburg added, "I just knew Dr. Lay briefly as a patient. I found him to be a great listener. He gave me great advice."