By Dave Person
It’s been 28 years since Ena (Brooks) Osterhouse walked the halls of Parchment High School, but her quest for learning continues.
A physician’s associate specializing in cardiothoracic surgery, Osterhouse launched a new business, Proper Eu Medical & Aesthetics Center, a year ago in Caledonia, where she and her husband, Jeff, also a Parchment graduate, live with their three children.
Osterhouse commutes to Borgess Cardiothoracic Surgery in Kalamazoo three days a week and every third weekend, while seeing patients at her medical and aesthetics center the rest of the week.
“I’m working a lot of hours right now,” she says.
Her new business, which has nine staffers, many of them medical professionals, “provides unisex services to make everyone look and feel their most beautiful,” according to its website.
It does that through bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, anti-aging and skin-rejuvenation procedures, massages and many other services.
As it approached its one-year anniversary in May, it was also nearing the milestone of having its 500th patient, Osterhouse says.
The center offers a contrast to her intense surgical schedule.
“It essentially is a pre-retirement plan for me so I can work a little less hard and with less strain on my body,” she says.
Osterhouse, 46, originally wanted to specialize in athletic training and she enrolled at Hope College after graduating from Parchment in 1995 with that in mind. But it didn’t take her long to realize that getting into that program would be a challenge, and after being exposed to physician-assistant training as a freshman she decided to pursue that as a career.
But another hiccup occurred before she could achieve that goal.
“While I was an undergraduate most of the PA programs switched from bachelor’s degree programs to master’s programs,” she says.
She couldn’t see continuing on into years of graduate school at that time, so she changed her career emphasis once again.
“I graduated with my bachelor’s in biology in ’99 from Hope and then continued another year … to get my bachelor-of-science (degree) in nursing,” she says.
She and Jeff were married in 2000 and she began working in Grand Rapids with West Michigan Cardiothoracic Surgeons, which later joined Spectrum Health Medical Group, as a clinical nurse, but at a higher level.
“I was kind of functioning as a PA or nurse practitioner,” she says.
Eventually, Spectrum developed a heart- and lung-transplant program and the work became more intense. “I felt I didn’t have enough education to handle these patients,” Osterhouse says.
She returned to school to become a physician’s assistant — or associate, as they are alternatively called to better reflect their responsibilities — at Western Michigan University.
After graduation, “I didn’t really know what career path I was going into at that time,” she says. “But I knew it had to be in a surgical specialty,” which would allow her to work with her hands and directly with patients.
She began working as a cardiothoracic physician assistant at Spectrum Health, briefly at Mercy Health in Muskegon, and “then was wooed down to Borgess.”
When Covid hit in 2020 and elective surgeries were paused, Osterhouse’s career took another turn.
“I … started traveling to Orlando, Florida, to help out a hospital there because I am trained in ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) which is the ultimate life-saving device.” The blood-cleaning process is used on patients on life support.
She ended up making those trips for a year and a half.
“That’s what kind of triggered our thought process of starting something at home,” she says, the result of which was Proper Eu.
“I was probably pondering the process for a good year before I said, ‘Yup, we’re going to do this. Then it was a mad rush of training in six months’ time.”
Osterhouse says the personal contact she has with others, in a small-town setting, is a highlight of that business.
“Many of my patients know they can contact me 24/7 even if they have issues that I’m not treating them for,” she says. “I think a lot of people appreciate that connection with their providers and that’s super important to me.” Meanwhile, she and Jeff have been raising three children.
Caitlin, 19, is a student at Ferris State University, with plans to be a physician’s assistant. She is getting experience at Proper Eu and Osterhouse expects she will take over the business someday.
Mason, 17, is a high school junior and Graham, 12, is in sixth grade.
Osterhouse says she is thankful to a number of mentors at Parchment High School for their support then and through the years even if it didn’t have a direct bearing on her career.
Drafting teacher Al Rohrstaff, aware of her interest in interior design, developed an independent study curriculum especially for her to explore that field and prepare her for her primary pastime.
“I would say to this day my hobby is home design and renovation and we always have an ongoing project in our house,” she says.
Soccer coach Kirt Brown was another mentor who left a lasting impression.
“In college, he would just give me a call and catch up on things,” she says. “He generally cared about our family.”
“Dan DeGraw was amazing,” she says of her government and economics teacher. “We had a lot of great discussions and arguments in there.”
“He was definitely a promoter and pusher of Ena,” she says, to “make sure you choose the right school and right path and right spouse.”
Attendance secretary Brenda Baker was another influential force.
“I was pretty involved in Student Council and everything regarding homecoming events and things like that, and pulling all-nighters and decorating all sorts of things,” Osterhouse recalls.
So when it came to her senior year when she and Jeff were homecoming king and queen, she didn’t even have time to buy a homecoming dress until Baker allowed her to leave school early that Friday to make the purchase.
“It’s just a little thing,” Osterhouse says, but it left a big impression.
“She treated me like I was another one of her kids,” she says of Baker.
“I have had a blessed educational and career path,” Osterhouse says. “I can’t say I would have done it any differently, because going from hospital to hospital, and even down to Florida, you meet so many wonderful people.”
