Pediatrician to thousands of area kids, 'Dr. Dan' retires after nearly 30 years - Greater Milwaukee Today

CEDARBURG - From newborns to teenagers, pediatrician Dan Hagerman has seen more than 10,000 children over his 28 years at the Cedar Mills Medical Group in Cedarburg.

And while he loved the job because of the positive energy kids bring, it hasn't always been easy. He's been punched, peed on, thrown up on and worse in the course of treating children, some frightful of going to the doctor.

But he figured out how to get creative, including learning how to juggle - well kind of.

"One of the good things about juggling for kids is that they think it is more fun when you drop the balls, which was fortunate because I never really was that great of a juggler," Hagerman said.

Other times he has crawled under chairs or the exam table to connect with a fearful child.  

"I recall a visit with a teen who was having significant mental health issues who refused to come into the clinic," Hagerman said. "I went and talked with him in his car in the parking lot because he really needed some help."

Hagerman hung up his white coat and stethoscope earlier this month because, he said, life is too short to spend it working.

Ohio-born, his family moved to the Detroit area when he was 6 and then to Brookfield when he was 10.

An interest in science and a gift for interacting with people led Hagerman to pursue a medical career. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989 and while on rotations, developed an interest in pediatrics.

"Pediatricians seemed happier and more positive. I was lucky to have some fantastic role models in pediatrics," he said. "In the end, there is only one real reason to be a pediatrician - wanting to work with and help children and their families."

Hagerman completed his residency at UW Hospitals and Clinics, where he served as chief resident of pediatrics.

In 1993, he started at what would be his permanent professional home, the Cedar Mills Medical Group in Cedarburg, a department of Columbia St. Mary's Hospital. He served as Cedar Mills co-medical director from 2003 to 2018.

Hagerman said working with children of different ages is a unique challenge. The interactions are all very different depending on whom he sees, be it a newborn, toddler, young child, teenager or young adult.

Some days were particularly tough when Hagerman had to deliver upsetting or scary information to parents and kids.

"I always felt that if I could make it a little less scary or painful, that I helped them," he said.

Hagerman estimates that he has had more than 100,000 total visits with children.

Among them were Jennifer Martone's kids. She called him an incredible man who educated, showed empathy and personally related to all of the parents who struggled right along with their sick children.

"A moment that stands out for me is when my daughter, who had chronic ear infections, would wake up during the night, cry and say 'I just want Dr. Dan to fix me,'" she said. "And he always did."

Another parent, Dave Burkart, said Hagerman gave him his cellphone number in case he ever had an issue.

"He was always very thorough and thoughtful," Burkart said. "We had an issue and he even gave me his cell number so I could text him. He will be missed and hard to replace."

Not only did Hagerman give out his cellphone number, he conducted house calls and even had patients come to his house on nights and weekends, when needed.

"I even gave a few kids shots of antibiotics for pneumonia or steroids for croup in the middle of the night," he said.

Even Hagerman's own mother, Marilyn, who is understandably biased, said she couldn't go very far in Cedarburg before she heard from a parent praising her son. She said that she and her husband moved from Door County to Cedarburg about 10 years after their son started working at Cedar Mills.

"It was only a matter of weeks when people would repeatedly ask us if we were related to Dr. Hagerman. When we said we were his parents, we heard time after time that he was their pediatrician or from people more our age that he was pediatrician for their grandchildren," Marilyn Hagerman said. "Then the praises would begin. It seemed to us he had nearly every kid in Cedarburg and he was universally loved."

Dan Hagerman said the biggest change over his nearly 30 years in pediatrics was the numerous vaccines that have come out, by far the greatest success story of modern medicine, he said.

"Several of the most dreaded diseases from my residency have been largely eliminated.  Bacterial meningitis has become extremely rare and bacterial pneumonia decreased significantly," he said. "Influenza rates and hospitalizations are way down. Hospitalizations for dehydration from Rotavirus have essentially vanished. Ear infection rates have fallen dramatically."

The internet has also been a blessing, but also a curse, he said.

"COVID obviously has made the past 17 months very trying times in medicine, particularly since my wife, Janell, had a bone marrow transplant in 2019 and was quite immunocompromised during the scariest times of the COVID pandemic," Hagerman said. "I urge everyone reading this to take COVID seriously, get vaccinated, get your kids vaccinated as soon as a vaccine is available to them and mask and distance appropriately."

Hagerman also taught other medical students and residents as an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has won two prestigious teaching awards through his work at the Medical College and Children's Wisconsin.

His name was also frequently included in the lists of top doctors in the

Greater Milwaukee area.

Hagerman served for many years as the volunteer medical adviser for the Cedarburg School District. When he was discouraged about a new human growth and development program the district adopted in 2012, he joined a group of parents to provide an alternative program.

Nine years later, the Responsibly Educating Adolescents for Life program is still available as an option for seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders, though Hagerman said it reaches far too few students.

Parent Lyle Gray said he and his wife used a different pediatrician for their daughter, but it was the R.E.A.L HG&D that their family used for human growth and development education.

"Given the Cedarburg district's absurd policy of "Just-say-no" sex education, Dr. Hagerman offered a real-life, common-sense option," Gray said.

Hagerman said working with kids has brought him energy and made the days fun. He has watched his patients grow up and have children of their own.

"It was a privilege to be the trusted adviser to thousands of families," he said.

Adblock test (Why?)