I am from the small town of Boulder City, Nevada, about 20 miles southeast of Las Vegas. When I was 16 my school sponsored a career day, and I checked the boxes for the only things that seemed interesting to me - mortician and ambulance crew.
They told me to wear black pants to school that day, so I figured I was headed to the mortuary, but instead found myself riding in the back of an ambulance for 12 hours, wide-eyed and slightly tachycardic, while my classmates attended board meetings and cleaned up behind the Slurpee? machine. I was hooked. So began my interest in emergency medicine. Several of my attendings have wondered if the high school career people made a mistake and sent me to the wrong place.
After high school, I spent 2 years doing missionary work in Central America where I learned many things, not the least of which was that the world is not about me. I returned home and attended Brigham Young University where I got a BS and MS in zoology. I attended the University of Nevada School of Medicine, graduating in ?02 (yes, East-coasters . . . we have a medical school in Nevada. I graduated with 46 others but I hear they have expanded the enrollment into the 50s now).
I married Karen McCoy (aka where have you been all of my life) in 2002. We are lucky to have 3 perfect children, Morgan, Sarah and Owen. Residency gave Karen the opportunity to show pictures of me to the children and remind them, ?This man is your father. Do not cry if you see him in the house. He lives with us.?
I completed the EMS/Wilderness medicine fellowship at the University of Utah in 2008 and now live and work in Salem, Oregon where I work in the busiest ED in the state and am affiliated with the local fire department EMS.
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine Education
- Emergency Medical Services for Children
- Wilderness Medicine
