Tag: OHSU

Donald Dean Trunkey JUNE 23, 1955 ~ MAY 1, 2019 (AGE 63) by English Funeral Chapel

Donald Dean Trunkey, M.D., 81

Donald Dean Trunkey passed away peacefully with his loved ones by his side on May 1, 2019, in Post Falls, Idaho. He was born on June 23, 1937, in Oakesdale, Wash., to John Douglas and Rebecca Nelson Trunkey. The family moved to St. John, Wash., where Don grew up and graduated from St. John High School in 1955 as valedictorian. He attended what was then Washington State College and received a degree in zoology, which made him the last person to have graduated from WSC before it officially became Washington State University. He was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.

Don and Jane Trunkey were married in Colfax, Wash., on Sept. 26, 1958. After graduation, Don went on to the University of Washington, where he received his doctorate of medicine degree. He did a rotating internship in Portland, Ore., at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

Don later served within the U.S. Army with the 4th Armored Division 2nd Calvary, in Bamberg, Germany, in the dispensary for two years. While there, their son, Robert Derek was born in Nuremberg, Germany; followed four years later by their daughter, Kristina “Kristi” Jo, born in San Francisco, Calif.

Don had a stellar career as a trauma surgeon — first through his residency in San Francisco, then becoming chairman of surgery at San Francisco General Hospital. Also a professor emeritus of surgery at the Oregon Health Science University, Don was presented the WSU Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award in recognition of his influential career and contributions to medical education, surgical methods and trauma care.

While in Portland, he also served as the head of the 50th General Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia within Desert Storm.

Don often volunteered in Landstuhl, Germany. While there, Col. Trunkey and Col. Daniel Cavanaugh flew Lieutenant General John. J. Yeosock to Germany for an operation. When they returned a few days later, Lt. General John J. Yeosock began the ground war. The order was given by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. Commander-in-Chief. Col. Trunkey was given a Bronze Star for his service.

Don is survived by his wife, Jane Mary Trunkey; son, R. Derek (Kristen Hammond) Trunkey and daughter, Kristi Trunkey. He is also survived by his sister, Sandie Trunkey and his grandchildren, Ethan, Nathan, Mason, Hayden, Hayley and Harrison. Don was preceded in death by his parents and his brothers, Jay, Gary, David Roger and K.B.

A memorial service for Don will be held at a later date.

In lieu of donations, please send to Trunkey Family Scholarship, S.J.E. School Foundation. PO Box 411, St. John, WA. 99171 or the St. John Heritage Museum, PO Box 315, St. John, WA 91711.

The family also asks for donations to be made in honor of Don to the College of Arts and Sciences Scholarship Fund or the College of Education Scholarship Fund at Washington State University, located at: https://foundation.wsu.edu/give/. Checks should be made payable to the Washington State University Foundation and mailed to the Washington State University Foundation at PO Box 641925, Pullman, WA 99164-1925. Please designate on the check ”in honor of Don Trunkey, College of Arts and Sciences Scholarship Fund” OR ”the College of Education Scholarship Fund.”

Respect and kindness for patients by Tammy Sloan-Minckler OHSU/MRH

I worked in Med Control/Medical Resource Hospital for OHSU Trauma. Your Father was my favorite Trauma Doc at the “U”.  Not only was I part of OHSU Trauma, my so was a four time kidney transplant patient and three time cancer survivor.  Including CNS lymphoma.  Dr. Trunkey always took time upon arriving in the ED before the arrival of his trauma patient, to stop in and ask about my son, Rory.  He always said he was available to help me with questions or concerns to help him reach the best person in the given field of need.   I adored him for his kindness to us. 

With each Trauma Activation, when Dr Trunkey led the team, I always knew this patient had the best chance and would be treated with the utmost respect, regardless of the patients outcome.  One of my earliest memories of Dr Trunkey, he and his residents arrived to the trauma bay for a gravely injured young man.  After he led the assessment and gave his initial opinion he allowed the team to work their amazing talents.  When the situation was hopeless for the patient, he would simply say “okay, thank you everyone, but stop now.” And a very respectful quiet would come over the ED.   You could see in him respect for every patient, every time.  So, sending my utmost respects to each and every family touched by Dr. Trunkey.  Forever a giant in the world of medicine, military, and humanity.”

My deepest condolences to your family.  This is a loss beyond measure.  I have lost both my parents and my son, Rory passed in 2012 from heart failure.   I understand where your hearts are now.  Please know how admired, respected, and appreciated Dr. Trunkey will always be. 

Learning from Dr. Trunkey by Dr Schreiber

I first met Dr. Trunkey as an intern at Madigan Army Medical Center in 1988.  Dr. Trunkey was doing his active duty training there and he was a Colonel in the US Army Reserve.  He spent a significant part of a day teaching in educational conferences and meeting with the residents.  As an iconic figure in trauma, I did not expect Dr. Trunkey to take the time to personally get to know each of the residents but this is exactly what he did.  I was immediately impressed with his breadth of knowledge and his ability to impart it. I still remember many of the topics we discussed that day and the words of wisdom he imparted

During the time Dr. Trunkey was at Madigan, I was assigned the first case of my career as an operating surgeon, a needle localized breast biopsy and I was shocked to find out that Dr. Trunkey, the famous trauma surgeon, was assigned as the attending.  So, essentially, right out of medical school, I was doing a case with 1 of the top 5 trauma surgeons in the country. But it was a breast biopsy, not a GSW to the heart but Dr. Trunkey was very patient with me and even with a breast biopsy, he was able to teach surgical concepts I carried with me for the rest of my career.  I considered the case to be a success because a trauma surgeon and a future trauma surgeon completed the case without massive bleeding!

That very brief exposure to Dr. Trunkey at the beginning of my career played a huge role in my decision to become a trauma surgeon in the future.  As the Chief of Trauma at OHSU, following in Dr. Trunkey’s footsteps, I feel honored to have learned from Dr. Trunkey and then later to have served as a colleague.

Martin A. Schreiber, MD FACS

One of my Heros, by Dr. John Mayberry

Don Trunkey, as my fellow surgical resident Brian Gilchrist liked to say, was Lincolnesque.  Always a calm demeanor, always a joke or an anecdote ready, and always leading others where they were afraid to go.  Like Lincoln he was tall, lanky, and folksy and was raised in a rural environment among family that favored hard work.  And like Lincoln, he rose to the top of his profession.  I never heard Don Trunkey character assassinate anyone.  The most negative thing, and it’s not even all that negative, I ever heard him say about another surgeon publicly or privately, was, ‘He’s an iconoclast’.  Some people might even say that’s a compliment!  And that attitude of acceptance permeated down from him into the surgery faculty at Oregon.  I consider myself very privileged to have trained with him.

From “Mayberry, John. Pioneers, Heroes, Brooders, Surgeons. American Journal of Surgery, 2019, Published Ahead of Print”

The Day Dr. Donald D. Trunkey Changed My Life. -By Dr. Cory S. Fawcett (former medical student under Dr. Trunkey)

Many physicians can look back in their life and find a pivotal point, an event that changed the direction of their lives. They may even have several such moments. It could be the day they decided to become a physician, or the day they picked their specialty. For me it was the day I decided to finish medical school and become a general surgeon. I would like to say thank you to the man who created that pivot in my career. I might not have had a career in medicine if it were not for the influence of Dr. Donald D. Trunkey during my fourth year of medical school at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

Our medical school curriculum was laid out to do the first two years in the class room learning basic sciences and the second two years in the surrounding hospitals and clinics. I slogged through the first two years awaiting the time when I could actually do the work of a physician. Physicians don’t just sit in lecture halls all day, they help make people well.

I started my third year with a three month clinical rotation in pediatrics. I spent that whole rotation sick. Every bug that came into the clinic was passed on to me. More than one of my weekends were spent hugging the toilet with projectile vomiting. Often the kids couldn’t explain what was wrong, leading me to feel like I was practicing veterinary medicine, where you have to rectify the problem without the help of the patient.

I was happy to move out of pediatrics into a different specialty. My next three month rotation was spent in OB/GYN. Working in OB/GYN, like pediatrics was not an enjoyable experience for me. The smells in the delivery room as well as the clinic were not to my liking. And the redundancy became unbearably monotonous.

My third rotation, internal medicine, was at the Portland VA medical center. During this three month rotation the group of patients I saw kept coming back over and over again with the same problems. It seemed like no one was being healed. We saw patients with lung disease who wouldn’t stop smoking and diabetics who would return in crisis because they wouldn’t take their medications. I felt like I wasn’t making an impact on these patients’ lives because they weren’t getting better.

At this point I was beginning to feel like medicine was not what I thought it was, and what I had been doing was certainly not what I signed up for. I became discouraged. All this work, all those years, and all that money to become a physician, what I wanted since I was a kid, was seemingly not what I wanted after all. I was on the verge of quitting medical school. My heart was no longer in it, which reflected in my medicine rotation grade; marginal with recommendation for another 6 weeks of internal medicine. I was pretty down on medicine.

I had just recorded an album of original music which was a lot of fun. I began to compare the two options: Medicine vs. Music. But quitting medical school is a huge decision with some big consequences. I was on a military scholarship, so what would the Navy do if I quit? How would I feel if I quit? What would my parents think of me if I quit? Could I make a living as a musician? There were a lot of musicians that I knew who were better than me that didn’t eat very well and had to bum a ride to gigs.

I decided I would go ahead and start the next rotation which was my final required block, general surgery. I started on Dr. Trunkey’s service. Here I was on the verge of quitting and I had to do a rotation with the new Chief of the Department of Surgery. He had only been there for about a year at that time, after having been recruited from San Francisco.

As I started my general surgery rotation, knowing nothing about general surgery, I was assigned to my first day in the OR with Dr. Trunkey.  Just the two of us. Can you imagine how I felt, as a medical student, who usually trained under residents or junior attendings, to be assigned to work with the head of the surgery department? I prepared by reading about the case and I felt that I was as ready as I could be, but I was a little apprehensive that morning as I left my apartment.

I got to the operating room before Dr. Trunkey. When he arrived, the anesthesiologist was putting the patient to sleep. Dr. Trunkey seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. He looked at me and asked if I had ever put in a Foley catheter before. I said, “No.” I thought he would get on my case for that or snap at the nurse to get the catheter in so we could get going. But, that is not what happened.

The great Dr. Trunkey said, “Go get some gloves and I’ll show you how.” He walked me through the steps and I put in my first Foley catheter. I don’t remember anything else about that day. There is an enormous gap between a medical student and the chief of the department at a teaching hospital. When he took me under his wing and said ‘let me teach you what I know,’ it changed my life.

Maybe all my prior training was taught by a resident who was at the end of his rope, or a junior attending who was nervous about getting bad results, or a post call tired physician. As a medical student, you don’t often get to be the first assistant to a professor. There are just too many other residents and fellows wanting that spot. It was almost like I could hear music playing and angels singing. That day, I experienced what it was like to be a physician. I saw a true leader. I saw the physician I wanted to be.

My attitude took a 180 degree turn that day. The rest of my time on his rotation was one of the best times I had in medical school. On this service, we were fixing things and healing people. If someone came in with appendicitis, we took the appendix out, saved their life and they never had that problem again. If someone crashed their car and ruptured their spleen, we took it out, saved their life, and it would never happen again.

I discovered that I was a fix it man at heart. General surgery was just what I needed. My mind was made up, I would finish medical school and become a surgeon. My grades changed from marginal, to honors after that first day with Dr. Trunkey.

Now my student evaluations said things like: “Energetic, very interested student,” “Constantly came to the OR prepared by reading about the case in advance,” “Increasing fund of knowledge gained by a significant amount of outside reading.”

It is possible to go from being a marginal student to an honors student in only one day. I know because I did it with a simple change of attitude.  I did it because one man took me under his wing and showed me what it’s like to be a great surgeon. I went on to practice general surgery for 23 years and now I am teaching other physicians to have a better life with better financial planning.

I don’t know how many medical students, residents, and junior faculty crossed paths with Dr. Trunkey over his career. He graduated from medical school in 1963 when I was only a year old. He stopped practicing medicine in 2007 at about the age of 70 when he was made surgeon emeritus and spent the next 8 years continuing to teach surgeons though lectures before fully retiring. Thousands of physicians were influenced by this one great man, not counting the hundreds of thousands of patients who were benefitted by his teachings in the world of trauma surgery. His influence also had a ripple effect to the thousands of patients I, and others like me, treated because of his influence.

Thanks, Dr. Trunkey, for changing my life and making it possible for me to have a rewarding career in general surgery.

Forever Grateful,

Dr. Cory S. Fawcett

(This article was originally published on Thanksgiving at DrCorySFawcett.com)

My Dad

My father is Don Trunkey.  He was a renowned trauma surgeon and is finally retired to Idaho.  This web site will be about his life and achievements.

Basic Biography from OHSU:

Donald Dean Trunkey was born, raised, and educated in the state of Washington. He graduated with an M.D. from University of Washington in 1963 in the hope of becoming a General Practitioner. He interned under J. Englebert Dunphy at the University of Oregon Medical School, who became his mentor and turned his focus to surgery. When Trunkey was drafted into the Army, Dunphy went to San Francisco to begin one of the first trauma centers. He brought Trunkey in to join him after his service, and also got him a surgical Fellowship in Texas. On his return Trunkey rose to become chief of surgery for San Francisco General Hospital for 8 years. He then came back to Oregon to build a trauma system as Dept. Chairman over the next 15 years. An important interlude saw him as chief of surgery in an army hospital in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. After the chairmanship he returned to teaching and lecturing on a global scale as a Professor and Professor Emeritus.

His varied experiences influenced his thoughts and actions on trauma care. In the Army rampant alcoholism led him to institute A.A. programs. In San Francisco the drug wars of the ‘60s made him both an expert in gunshot wounds, and an advocate for controversial measures like gun control and drug legalization. Work with traffic accident victims led him to lobby for seat-belt and helmet laws. Likewise, exposure to the Texas Burn Unit not only led him to replicate one in San Francisco, but also to research fire-retardant clothing and self-extinguishing cigarettes. His wartime service likewise gave him an up-close look at the current state and problems of combat medicine.

Trunkey’s decades-long involvement with trauma and trauma systems led to new surgical protocols of both invasive and non-operative types; the authorship of hundreds of articles and book chapters; the delivery of innumerable lectures; and participation in over 30 professional organizations.