Dr. Michele B. Wagner, retired Emergency Physician from Newton, died November 7, 2023 at a hospice house in Wayland. She was 75. Until a disabling nerve injury forced her retirement in early 2002, Dr. Wagner served in the Emergency Department of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Previously she was a residency director at the Medical College of Georgia.
Intelligent, curious, disciplined and highly educated, Dr. Wagner loved learning and teaching throughout her life. In addition to medicine and all sciences, her interests included nature and wildlife, economics, French and English literature, world history and cultures, U.S. Politics, climate and change and human brain research. Always, she was fiercely determined to teach whatever she had learned to other people.
Dr. Wagner was born in Totton, England, June 13, 1948. Her English father, Leonard R. Betts, was an aircraft mechanic. Her French mother Madeleine (Quintainne) Betts, had been a school teacher in Normandy throughout World War II. An only child, Michele grew up in England, France, Switzerland and Bermuda. Her parents were separated before Michele and her mother moved to Canada about 1956. A serious student, Michele excelled at a girls' boarding school and the University of Ottawa, then graduated from the University of Illinois. She continued graduate studies in economics at the University of Maryland and taught college courses for a couple of years.
Deciding to change careers, Dr. Wagner moved to France to study medicine. In 1980, halfway through the medical college in Rouen, she married James R. Wagner, then a Washington DC journalist. The couple lived in Rouen for three years while she completed her medical degree. Dr. Wagner served her residency in emergency medicine (1984-87) at the Wright State University School of Medicine in Dayton, OH. She became a U.S. Citizen in 1987.
Recruited by the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, the state's only public medical school, Dr. Wagner was charged with establishing a residency in emergency medicine. She achieved that in a record time and became Residency Director. Beginning with seven residents, that program has thrived more than three decades and currently graduates 14 emergency physicians annually. After seven years in Augusta, Dr. Wagner in 1995 joined the emergency medicine faculty at Beth Israel Hospital (now BIDMC). She served in that department six and a half years.
In November 2001, Dr. Wagner suffered a severely broken ankle while hiking. The nerve damage caused a rare chronic pain condition called complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Permanently disabled, Dr. Wagner had to end her medical career at the age of 53. Continuous pain in her ankle and leg led to many neurological and physical complications throughout 22 years. Dr. Wagner had limited mobility but continued some social activities and her drive to learn and teach until the last months of her life. The Wagners lived in Newton Lower Falls beginning in 1997.
Dr. Wagner is survived by her husband, James R. Wagner, sister-in-law, Audrey W. Elam of Oak Ridge, TN, two nieces and three nephews.
Dr. Wagner's husband and friends will receive visitors from 3-6PM, Thursday, Nov. 16, at the Henry J. Burke & Sons Funeral Home, 56 Washington Street, Wellesley Hills. The Rev. Kari Jo Verhulst will lead a Memorial Service at 1pm Friday November 17 at the Lutheran Church of the Newtons, 1310 Centre Street, Newton followed by a reception. Donations in Dr. Michele B. Wagner's memory may be made to her favorite charity, Doctors Without Borders at www.doctorswithoutborders.org or to a favorite charity of one's choice.