MORGAN HILL
– Helping comes naturally to one local woman, whose multiple
patients have continued to follow her from practice to practice
over the years.
MORGAN HILL – Helping comes naturally to one local woman, whose multiple patients have continued to follow her from practice to practice over the years.
Noni Weidemann, from Morgan Hill, now works as a nurse practitioner for Dr. William Joyce. Her road toward medicine started when she was young, and while it was constantly challenging, she says it was always rewarding.
“I knew when I was a little girl that I wanted to go into the medical field because my daddy is such a great doctor and helping him when I was young prepared me for the future” Weidemann said.
And Weidemann’s patients have followed her around, as well.
“I would never go to another practice,” said Sherry Dolfin, who has been a patient of Weidemann’s for more than six years. “Noni found my sister’s melanoma cancer, and when she passed away she (Weidemann) was there for me and my family. She even came to the hospital, and she always checks on my sister’s daughter to see how she is coping. She really develops a relationship with her patients.”
Joyce said that care makes a big difference at the office.
“Noni is confident in what she does and loves her patients,” said Dr. Joyce.
While working as a nurse practitioner in women’s health says she assisted with the delivery of more than 1,000 babies.
Weidemann credits her father, Dr. Delmar Mock, for setting a good example while she was growing up. The medical profession surrounded her, and their home in Padagonia, Ariz., had a three-bed birthing center attached to it.
“Daddy was the only doctor in a 2,500-square-mile radius, and if people needed help they would leave a white cloth on the fence outside their house,” Weidemann said.
Remarkably, Weidemann assisted her father with many births when she was very young.
“I remember Noni assisted with her first birth at the age of 12,” Mock said.
When she decided to pursue medicine, she already had two young children, but she still began the long and tedious task of attending nursing school at the University of Bakersfield. She then earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Davis in 1976.
“Some people think that it is so hard and you cannot raise a family and pursue your dreams at the same time, but this is not true,” Weidemann said.
It seems she was right, because in 1978 Weidemann earned her master’s degree as a family nurse practitioner in a dual program between UC Davis and Stanford University.
In 1981, not long after Weidemann began working as a nurse practitioner, she broke both of her legs in a severe skiing accident, and she was out of work.
Broken physically, but not spiritually, she says it was a turning point for her because she decided to move to the Bay Area. She met her future husband and was brought back to her roots by taking the position of manager of labor and delivery at the former Wheeler hospital on First Street, where she taught all of the labor and delivery classes.
After Wheeler hospital closed its doors, Weidemann went to work for Saint Louise Hospital and then San Jose Medical group, but luck was not on her side because after five years, the San Jose Medical group went bankrupt.
Weidemann was offered positions in San Jose, but many of her patients were from Morgan Hill and Gilroy, and she did not want them to have to continue driving so far to see her.
Weidemann learned from her father to put the needs or her patients first, which is apparent in an autobiography, written by Carolyn Rathbun-Sutton, that she likes.
“Fool’s Gold, Chronicles of a Country Doctor” shows that health care needs to be more about helping patients and missionary work – less about the large paycheck.
“We don’t have acute care in Morgan Hill, and I think the patient relationship is important,” Weidemann said.
And that’s exactly what her father hoped for her when she first began in the profession years ago.
“I am very proud of my daughter and what she has accomplished. I knew she would succeed in the medical profession,” Mock said.
Weidemann has contributed to the medical community in both Morgan Hill and Gilroy over the last 30 years. It is an honor for her to say she knows what it means to be a healer both mentally and physically.
