Travels brought CT tech ‘home' to the Valley

Oct. 13, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - For a while, no place felt like home for Larry Walters. But since he was transplanted to Palmer in 2001, that all changed.

&#8220I can't ever imagine living anywhere else,” Walters said. &#8220I started meeting people, and it began to feel like home. And now it is home.”

Originally from Oregon, Walters spent about five years working and traveling around the Midwest.

&#8220I got to see all the ‘-ota' states, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota” he said. &#8220I traveled a little in Kansas and was in a lot of small communities in Montana.”

Walters has worked in the medical field since he was 15, working for a

veterinarian through high school.

From there, he moved up to medical laboratories.

&#8220I was a pee pourer,” he said. &#8220I started at the bottom, testing urine samples for the government. From there, I became a phlebotomist, taking people's blood.”

In 1975, after a three-year course, Walters graduated with an associate's degree as a radiological technologist.

&#8220I've been doing it for a while,” he said.

Then, for about eight months when he got to Sioux Falls, S.D., Walters took a break from the medical field and drove a

taxicab.

&#8220Driving was an interesting and humbling experience,” he said. &#8220I'd been fortunate. I didn't see that side of life. I started to see how people are classed. I never saw that before, or it never sunk in.”

Like many people in service industries, Walters found the best tippers were often not the wealthiest. The business man making lots of money had a hard time giving a 10-cent tip, he said.

&#8220But a short-order cook always tipped a few dollars,” Walters said. &#8220People who can least afford it had a better understanding of how hard you have to work to make money.”

Walters admitted to not being a person who tipped much before he worked as a cabbie, putting in 12 to 14 hours a day and making about $1 an hour before tips.

&#8220I felt fortunate to have $50 in my pocket,” he said. &#8220I'm a much more generous tipper now.”

One of Walters' fares was a radiologist. During small talk on the way to the airport, she discovered his medical background and put him in touch with some people in Fargo, N.D., who supplied small hospitals with refurbished CT and MRI scanners.

Walters parked the cab and re-entered the medical arena, training small-town technicians on equipment that was new to them.

When his then-wife completed her residency, they moved to Alaska. Walters set up her doctor's office, and continued helping other doctors set up their practices.

With his knowledge and background, he could have their offices equipped, staffed and ready to roll when the doctor opened the door.

When the marriage ended, Walters returned to the field of radiology, commuting to Providence Hospital in Anchorage. It took him about three weeks to get up to speed with the new technology, he said.

&#8220The basic exams have not changed,” he said. &#8220It's a matter of hardware and software, and a different way of thinking.”

When the hospital opened Imaging Associates of Providence near Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, Walters stopped commuting to run the MRI and CT scanners here.

After years in the field, the former pee pourer marvels at the technology.

&#8220I'm amazed people came up with this,” he said.

&#8220The theory and physics for MRI came out of the World War II era. I saw my first CT in 1974, when I was a student. It was built by a company called EMI, which was owned by the

Beatles.

&#8220That scanner could only do heads. A fast scan in those days took 6 minutes. Today, the same scan would take 12 seconds, with greater detail and resolution. It's fun for me to be part

of it.”

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com