Seeing patients fully recover after once being on the brink of death in the intensive care unit is the most rewarding aspect of Dr. Robert Marron’s profession as a pulmonologist and critical care physician.

At St. Luke’s Carbon Campus, Robert Marron, MD, cares for patients with breathing issues, including those in the Intensive Care Unit. In addition, he sees outpatients in the St. Luke’s Pulmonary & Critical Care Associates Palmerton, Allentown and Bethlehem offices. As a pulmonologist, he diagnoses and treats diseases and conditions that affect the respiratory system, which include the airways and lungs. COPD and interstitial lung disease are among the conditions he treats.

Dr. Marron recalls caring for a man who was profoundly ill with bilateral viral pneumonia and required maximal life support for many months. The odds that he would recuperate were long, but with advanced care and life support, he recovered enough to get a lung transplant. Dr. Marron later treated him in the outpatient lung clinic.

“At St. Luke’s, I’ve had patients with pneumonia, requiring mechanical ventilation and life support for several weeks, who have recovered. They came back to the ICU months later and shook my hand. They looked great. It’s amazing, considering how sick they were. It’s the most rewarding aspect of what we do.”

In the office, Dr. Marron treats patients for various conditions and often over many years. This enables him to develop strong, long-lasting relationships with patients and their families. He especially enjoys treating patients with difficult-to-control asthma. Some have been in and out of the hospital for years and have taken many different types of medications but continue to struggle.

“I meet them a couple of times, change their treatment, and then they come back and tell me their life has changed,” he said. “They’re able to exercise and are not missing work. Through tailoring their medications differently, we can change their lives.” Dr. Marron enjoys the diversity of working in both inpatient and outpatient settings. In the hospital, he manages acutely sick patients who require very high levels of support but also sees less ill patients in other areas of the hospital who have breathing difficulties or pulmonary disease.

Dr. Marron and his colleagues split their time between St. Luke’s smaller northern campuses in Carbon, Schuylkill and Monroe counties and their larger campuses in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.

“I think that gives me a good perspective because I’m aware of all the services the network provides in the pulmonary setting,” he said. “I’m also a critical care doctor, so I know when to keep people locally and when to send them for testing or referrals in the Lehigh Valley. That’s a good thing.

“We like working in these communities, and come with a sense of purpose to keep people local as much as possible, both for them and their families,” he said. “You can’t have every resource at the smaller hospitals, but we are pleased to offer advanced respiratory and critical care in the hospital and pulmonary outpatient services close to the homes of our Carbon and Schuylkill County patients. That is a commitment that St. Luke’s has made.”

Dr. Marron said he was attracted to St. Luke’s partly because of its commitment to serving rural communities. He had also heard from physicians he knew through his residency and fellowship at Temple University, who now work for the network, that the network treats its physicians well and, more importantly, is committed to providing excellent patient care.

Furthermore, the opportunity to teach St. Luke’s Temple Medical School students as an adjunct assistant professor was a big draw. Besides medical students, he works with residents and fellows of St. Luke’s Graduate Medical Education Program. He added teaching students requires physicians to stay current with the latest medical advances that benefit patients.

Among his responsibilities, Dr. Marron is also a lung transplant specialist and cares for patients undergoing evaluation at St. Luke’s transplant partner Temple University Hospital. Transplant patients are seen at Temple for the first year and then transferred to Dr. Marron for subsequent follow-up. This enables patients needing a lung transplant to get much of the pre-and post-care in Carbon County.

To schedule an appointment in Palmerton, call 484-526-3890.