Anger mixes with grief over Davenport doctor's death

Font Size:

By Barb Ickes | Saturday, August 9, 2008 10:12 AM CDT | () comments

Craig C. Schultz (Contributed Photo)

For 24 years, Craig C. Schultz saved lives and healed people as a doctor in the urgent-care

center of Medical Associates Clinic in Dubuque, Iowa.

The fact that a driver left the Davenport man to die alone Thursday on a rural stretch of road near Cordova, Ill., is making the news of his death even more difficult for his co-workers and neighbors. The 61-year-old was riding his bicycle, which he commonly did, when he was hit by a vehicle near the intersection of 150th Avenue North and 291st Street at about 10:30 a.m.

A spokesman for the Illinois State Police said Agustin Barragan, 55, of Savanna, Ill., was the driver of the vehicle that struck and killed Schultz. He was being held Friday in the Rock Island County Jail, charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a felony.

Although it is unlikely that Schultz would have survived what a deputy coroner described as “very, very severe injuries,” those who knew him are angry that the driver fled.

“It being a hit-and-run, that was the worst of all,” said Sharon Hegenbart, who has lived across the street from Schultz for about 10 years. “How could you do that to

somebody?”

A preliminary autopsy report indicates that Schultz died from blunt-force head trauma. He was wearing a helmet, but the protective gear was insufficient because of the force of the impact. There were “multiple traumatic injuries,” Rock Island County Chief Deputy Coroner Brian Gustafson said Friday.

The speed limit at the accident scene is 55 mph, and most of the stretch of 150th Avenue has little or no shoulder.

About 24 hours after the accident, the doctor’s co-workers at the clinic in Dubuque received the news of his death.

“He cared for a lot of people in this community,” clinic spokeswoman Julie Hoffman said. “It’s a tragic loss. The fact it was a hit-and-run makes it even more tragic.”

Hit hardest by the news, Hegenbart and Gustafson said, is Schultz’s 14-year-old daughter, Rachel. The father-daughter connection was so strong, they said, that the doctor chose to make the 70-mile commute to Dubuque from Davenport so he could be near his daughter, for whom he shared custody.

“You couldn’t have a conversation with him without hearing about his daughter,” Hegenbart said, adding that the first time she met her neighbor was when he knocked on the door to ask whether there were any children in the neighborhood. “I can’t even tell you how connected he was to his daughter. He just loved that girl.”

Besides his daughter and his work, Schultz’s other passions were bicycling and skiing. Gustafson said he had the physique of a man 20 years younger than his age, and Hegenbart said, “You would never think he was 61.”

She saw her neighbor leave for his bike ride Thursday and waved goodbye to him.

“I just can’t even believe it — that you can leave like that and just not come back,” she said. “The last thing you say to someone may be the last thing you ever say to someone. We should all choose our words carefully.”

She was at home when Gustafson arrived at Schultz’s house, looking for family members who had not yet been notified of his death.

“He (Gustafson) just said he was with the coroner’s office and I said, ‘I’m sure Doc will be home in a little bit. He’s on a bike ride,’ ” she said. “He told me he’d had an accident on his bike.

“I said, ‘Is he OK?’ and he said, ‘No, he’s not.’ ”

Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.

CLINIC ISSUES STATEMENT

Here is the statement issued Friday by Medical Associates Clinic, Dubuque, Iowa, where Dr. Craig C. Schultz of Davenport worked for the past 24 years:

“We are profoundly and truly saddened by the sudden, untimely death of Dr. Schultz,” Medical Associates president Mark Runde, M.D., said. “Dr. Schultz was a great physician and a valued colleague. He provided excellent, compassionate care to the citizens of this community for many years. He will be deeply missed.”

Schultz joined Medical Associates Clinic in June 1984. He staffed its Acute Care facility for 24 years, providing urgent and emergency care to patients. He received his medical degree from the College of Osteopathic Medicine & Surgery in Des Moines in 1973. He completed his residency in family practice at Wright Patterson Air Force Base Medical Center, Ohio, from 1973 to 1976. He also served in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Wright Patterson from 1973 to ‘76, and Beale Air Force Base in California from 1976 to ’77. Schultz was board-certified in family practice and was a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a member of the Iowa Medical Society and Dubuque County Medical Society. He was a longtime shareholder of Medical Associates.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Dr. Schultz in this time of loss,” Runde said. “He was a dedicated and hard-working physician. In the days ahead, we will work to give our full support to his family and to assist them in any way we can.”

“The Acute Care department staff is grieving the passing of Dr. Schultz. It is hard to imagine the Acute Care without him. He was passionate about life and deeply committed to his patients. He was a great friend and mentor,” said Craig Rose, D.O., an Acute Care physician and longtime colleague of Schultz’s. “I have had the privilege of working with Dr. Schultz during his entire career at Medical Associates, and he was among the finest of physicians.”