Longtime pediatrician leaving Lynn, heading south

LYNN – He has saved lives, helped families and orchestrated significant change in the way that children receive medical care in Massachusetts, but after 35 years of caring for multiple generations of the city’s youngest residents, Dr. Walter L. Harrison says it’s time to shut the doors of his Lynnfield Street practice.This is not a retirement for Lynn’s most recognizable pediatrician, rather an opportunity to take another step in his career and begin a new life at a large practice in Nashville, Tenn.Harrison has touched the lives of countless families in the Lynn area since opening his practice in 1973. Originally from New York, Harrison attended college at Dartmouth and decided to remain in this area, eventually settling into a home in West Peabody.Along with his practice, the pediatrician served as Chief of Pediatrics at North Shore Children’s Hospital and spearheaded several campaigns that changed children’s health care for the better.As founder and chair of the Children’s Mental Health Task Force he fought for the proper treatment and diagnosis of mental health issues in children and worked with the pediatric council on issues with HMOs. He played a vital role in structuring Project Good Health, a predecessor to the state’s new Mass Health program, and served on and advised several other agencies and pediatric boards in the Boston area.His annual essay contest, challenging the city’s youth to explain how they would improve the health of their families and the city, became a springtime staple in the school department. Harrison has handed out thousands in $50 savings bonds as prizes to the winners.But the sluggish economy, increasing cost and some changes in his personal life made it difficult for Harrison to keep up with changes in regulations and a need to hire an associate at his practice.With all of those challenges in mind, Harrison said he received an offer he couldn’t refuse from a practice with over 10 offices and nine pediatricians in Nashville. He has a daughter living in that area and said the appeal of a better quality of life and a great career opportunity was simply too much to pass up.”It got to a point where the number of newborns coming in have not kept pace with the number of patients aging out of my practice,” Harrison said. “I love doing what I am doing and I am sorry to leave, especially to have to leave a place where I am now taking care of some children whose parents I used to take care of.”Harrison has enough memories of his 35 years to fill a library with accounts of patients who have come and gone, but the doctor says a few really stick out in his mind.He remembers one teenager who continued to run away from home despite every effort by the family and the doctor to put her through counseling and on the proper medications.Harrison told the parents that their only remaining option was to let the girl go, and hope she realizes that she needs their support to stay alive.”It was hard because I had to explain that if they didn’t go after her she may die, but maybe she will realize that she doesn’t want to live like that anymore,” he said. “Four months later the daughter and mother came in arm-in-arm. She got rid of the drugs, went back to school and now she is married with two kids.”Harrison was also instrumental in creating a bridge from Boston to Lynn in the medical community as evident in one child he treated for severe seizures.While treating the child he worked with North Shore Children’s Hospital and specialists in Boston to consult about treatment options that ultimately added several years on to the boy’s life. The doctor says having that local care along with the support of the top-of-the line medical community in Boston is a great asset for families.”It is really, very comforting for patients (to receive treatment close to home),” he said. “Families have been very appreciative of that over the years.”When Harrison closes his doors for good on Sept. 12 he will be leaving behind years of patients,