Hospital, Swift River bid farewell to residents

RUMFORD -- Rumford Hospital and Swift River Family Medicine offered congratulations and said farewell to Harpreet Ghotra, MD, and Petrona Manasseh, MD, who have successfully completed their residencies.

For two years they had been part of the Rumford Hospital family, serving their residencies in Central Maine Medical Center's Rural Track Residency at Swift River Family Medicine and the hospital.

Swift River Family Medicine is the site of Central Maine Medical Center's Rural Track Residency Program for Family Medicine. In the three-year Rural Track, residents who are recent medical school graduates spend most their first year in Lewiston with their class, but during their second and third years they have the opportunity to learn what it is like to practice in a rural community instead of the large, urban hospitals they have become accustomed to.

Ghotra and Manasseh both say that the River Valley community's cooperation and willingness to help teach them made their stay an unforgettable experience. They have had the opportunity to deliver babies, care for children, comfort elders and diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions.

Ghotra and Manasseh had both heard about the Rumford program from the residents who preceded them. In particular, they had heard the Rural Track praised for its strong training in the full spectrum of Family Medicine.

Manasseh, a Toronto native, will return to that Canadian city to practice, as will Ghotra, whose wife is Canadian. They are hoping, in fact, that they will be able to work in the same practice.