GUILDERLAND — The town’s first pediatrician, Anthony Mastrianni, made the bittersweet decision to retire earlier this year.

From his winter home in Florida this week, Mastrianni told The Enterprise about the satisfaction and heartbreak he experienced as a doctor.

He described the intimacy of, after 50 years of practicing medicine, watching his patients grow up and then treating their children.
"I took care of an awful lot of kids, thousands," Mastrianni said. "For the most part, pediatrics is a challenging and loving profession. Pediatricians are surrogate parents in a way....We’re a good breed of people."

Mastrianni, 76, started his career in 1954, when he interned at Albany Medical Center. He then practiced with his uncle, Francis Mastrianni, in Altamont for a year.

He served as a physician and radiologist in the United States Air Force for two years. And, from 1958 to 1960, he worked again at Albany Medical Center.

After working with adults, Mastrianni decided that he’d rather treat children.
"Kids are more challenging than adults," he said.

Mastrianni opened his own practice on New Scotland Avenue, in Albany, and, in 1966, moved it to Western Avenue in Guilderland. He moved the practice to Schoolhouse Road in 1977 with two partners, John Abbuhl and James Murphy.

Mastrianni spoke about how medicine has evolved over the years. He went on many house calls when he first began his practice, he said.
"It was good, but an inefficient way of taking care of children," he said, since he couldn’t bring most of his equipment with him.

Also, Mastrianni said, house calls took a lot of time; he traveled to see patients not just in Guilderland, but in Berne, Albany, Rensselaer, and Delmar.

When he ended house calls, it took the parents of his patients some adjusting, he said.
"I said, ‘Are you coming by horse and buggy or by heated car"’ They said, ‘Heated car.’ So, I said, ‘Then you can bring your child to the office,’" Mastrianni recalled.

Challenges

He loved his work, Matrianni said, although at times it was difficult.
"Sometimes you felt like you were a veterinarian; you had to get the patient’s history from the parent," he said.

Mastrianni had a few parents bring in their babies, who had meningitis. He recalled putting the babies in his car and rushing them to the hospital, he said.

He talked about other ways his practice changed. When his patients got older, Mastrianni would not only examine them physically, but also counsel them.
"I used to be very embarrassed to talk to teens about their sexual activity," he said. But, he said, in the past decade or more, as talking about sex became less taboo, the discussions got easier.

Mastrianni was the health officer for the Guilderland schools and was the physician for the elementary and middle schools.

In the 1970’s, he said, he and the Guilderland High School principal would visit students and teach them about the dangers of smoking marijuana.

Mastrianni was also the medical director for St. Margaret’s Home for Children for 25 years.
"I mostly took care of severely brain-damaged children," he said. "It was a real challenge."

He formed an ethics committee for the facility. Mastrianni, along with other doctors, parents, a minister, and a lawyer created a set of regulations for physicians to follow, to determine when to treat terminally ill patients and when to let them die.

The doctors there needed guidance on how to make such excruciating decisions, he said.
"I had a baby that came from New York. The baby had a big hole in its skull and no brain material," Mastrianni said. "The skull cavity was filled with fluid....
"I told the mother, if the baby could suck on its own, we’d keep it alive. She held my hand and said, ‘Thank God.’ But, the baby died two days later," he said.

Raising children

As a doctor, Mastrianni could relate to the parents of his patients. He knew what it was like to be a parent. He and his wife, Joan, had six daughters.
Asked about treating his children, Mastrianni said, "They say the shoemaker’s kid gets the last sole."

He took care of the minor medical problems his children had, Mastrianni said, but let other pediatricians treat them regularly. His judgment may have been clouded, he said, because he was so emotionally attached to his daughters.

Mastrianni, who now has 13 grandchildren, proudly described his daughters’ occupations, from nursing and teaching to social and environmental work.
"My whole family is service-oriented," he said. "It’s a nice legacy to pass on."

Mastrianni then spoke fondly of his wife, who worked as a receptionist early in her husband’s practice and later worked as a nurse.
"She was very understanding," he said, as he established his practice and made house calls. "...She raised six kids, born within eight years, and never had outside help, no maids."

Mastrianni and his wife are now enjoying their retirement, he said. The couple lives in Florida in the winter and Guilderland in the summer.

Mastrianni plans on playing golf and reading, which, he said, he hadn’t been able to do much of before. When in this area, Mastrianni said he will volunteer for Community Caregivers and the Teresian House.

It was difficult to decide to retire, Mastrianni said.
"I developed such a rapport with my staff and patients," he said. "It was a vital part of my life."
His patients wrote kind things about him in a journal that was kept in his office, Mastrianni said. "It was filled with sentimental notes that I’ll always treasure," he said.
"It’s been a wonderful experience. I don’t regret one bit of it," Mastrianni concluded of his work. "I feel I played a part in helping parents raise their kids."