CALEB NICKERSON
MANSFIELD ET PONTEFRACT April 7, 2021
This past week, a Pontiac physician retired from practicing medicine, after nearly five decades of serving the community.
Dr. Alexander Zhivkov took a rather circuitous route to the Pontiac, where he has practiced medicine since 1975. Originally from Sofia, Bulgaria, he came to Canada as a political refugee in 1970 at the age of 29.
He met his wife Michele, a pharmacist originally from France, in Montreal where he . . .
had an internship at McGill University. He followed her to the Pontiac in 1975, where she established a pharmacy and he set up a family practice. Zhivkov’s daughter Pavlina would eventually follow in her mother’s footsteps and became a pharmacist as well, currently practicing in Fort Coulonge.
He said that despite not having any previous link to the Pontiac, he took a liking to the natural scenery.
“I didn’t have any connections here,” he said. “I like the country here, I like hunting and fishing … I’m not a big city boy, even though I was born and raised in a big city.”
Zhivkov said that he enjoyed the human aspect of family medicine the most and had patients from Campbell’s Bay to Chapeau and everywhere in between. He said that working in a small community was something that he found pleasant, since he could develop relationships with several generations of the same family.
“I was enjoying first of all, that I knew my patients. I knew the grandparents, the parents, the children … grandchildren and so on. I had a good grasp of what could be the problem when somebody comes into my office,” he said. “I enjoyed diagnosing, treating people … You could be helpful to the people. That’s important to me.”
Zhivkov said that part of the reason why he decided to retire was the amount of new regulations and restrictions that didn’t exist when he began his career.
“Practicing medicine changed quite a bit since I started. The way that we had more liberty to do things that now I’m not supposed to do,” he said, giving the example of removing small lesions, which would now be referred to a specialist. “Occasionally, I was doing things that were very specialized … I was doing it well, never had any problems, but … the restrictions are too much for me … Many things I used to do I don’t do anymore.”
He said he was grateful to all the colleagues he worked with over the years, and singled out his administrative assistant Lisette Denault, who has worked with him since the beginning.
“I’m very grateful to her and all her help,” he said.
Zhivkov also expressed gratitude for his family, and said that he was looking forward to spending more time at his hunting camp or on the water with a fishing rod.
He said he was hopeful that an in-person celebration would happen in the near future, since his daughter Vanessa owns and operates a large reception hall in Mansfield, Ferme Livamia.
“Maybe after the restrictions are lifted we will do something. I got a lot of presents, quite a few bottles of booze you know, I am stocked for a while,” he said with a laugh. “I hope I did some impact you know, on the population, a positive one anyway.”
