First Responder: Trauma Surgeon Joins the Navy Reserve

by By: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Raymond Maddocks, Commander, Navy Reserve Forces Command Public Affairs

17 April 2024 LEWISTON, Maine - Commander Richard King had just gotten home from a 12-hour shift as a Trauma and Acute Care Surgeon at Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC) when he was notified by a colleague about a rapidly developing mass casualty event. Knowing he was needed, King got back in his car and drove to CMMC, located in Lewiston, Maine.

"I put my hazards on and started to get back to Lewiston as fast as I safely could," said King. "At the time, the only information I had was what my colleague had told me."

On his way into the city, King called every colleague he could think of to relay what little information he had. When he contacted his physician's assistant, who was already in the emergency room treating casualties, the PA told him there were at least two who needed to go to the operating room.

"Normally what would happen is I, as the trauma surgeon, would assess the patient in the trauma bay and then make a determination from there," said King. "But when you're dealing with a mass casualty event you don't know how many more people are going to come through that door."

King advised the PA to prepare the patients and send them to the OR.

"When I walked into the emergency department it was chaos," said King. "But in these kinds of situations you can't dwell on that. I immediately made contact with my PA and then went up to the OR."

On his way to the OR a colleague stopped him to let him know he was available to assist. So King and the other surgeon performed surgery on two patients in succession.

King credits years of training and experience with his ability to act quickly and effectively in high-stress situations.

"When it really hits the fan, you have to have your training ingrained in your mind, like muscle memory, because you need to be able to filter out the chaos," said King. "You need to be absolutely focused on what you need to do and what I needed to do in that moment was get to the OR and stop the patient's bleeding. It was because of my training that I was able to think through what I needed to do and how I could be the most helpful to the patients requiring surgery."

By the time his second surgery was completed, more surgeons had come to the hospital and his patients were recovering in the ICU. But King's work wasn't done. It was time to give a status update to the patients family members.

"Giving information to family members really is a challenging thing," said King. "Even if you're not telling them about a death, the patient still may be in critical condition, and you have to tell their loved ones the facts. It really is an art because you always want to give hope, but you don't want to give them false hope."

King said he finds empathy is the best way forward when delivering this news to a family.

"When I'm giving bad news, I think to myself 'How would I want to get this news?'," said King. "You never really know what the reaction is going to be, but I make sure to be direct without being insensitive."

Since his departure from the Army in 2000, King had been committed to spending as much time with his family as he could, but he always felt a desire to care for service members like his father had. It is this level of expertise and care for his community that King hopes to bring to a new community: the Navy Reserve.

There were a few different factors that motivated King into beginning his naval service after leaving the Army over 20 years ago. One was family tradition; one was a sense of unfinished business; but the biggest motivating factor was the desire to save lives.

"The biggest reason I joined was because of the loss of 13 servicemembers at Kabul Airport in August 2022," said King, adding the event resonated with him because of something that happened during his father's service in the Korean War.

"My father was the Chief of Surgery of Yokosuka Naval Hospital at the time the Battle of Chosin Reservoir occurred and the hospital received a lot of the causalities," said King. "Much like my father before me with the Marines from Chosin Reservoir in 1950, I joined for those lost servicemembers. "

Another motivating factor for King was a desire to prevent what is known in military medical circles as the "Walker dip".

According to King, the "Walker dip" is a concept developed by a British surgeon which describes the cycle of improvement of care during the course of a conflict and the need to relearn the skills needed to sustain a high level of effective trauma care once a conflict is over.

At the beginning of a military conflict, medical personnel are not as experienced treating combat injuries. As the conflict goes on, however, medical personnel get more experience and the rate of successful outcomes goes up. By preventing the Walker dip, King said, the Navy Reserve will be better prepared to be ready on day one of a future conflict.

"By bringing my 20 years of civilian experience in trauma surgery to the Navy Reserve, I hope to play a part in preventing the "Walker dip,"' said King. "Not only by what I can do as a surgeon, but by training others as well."

King was also inspired to join the Navy by his father's naval service.

King's father, Dr. James D. King, had a long career of military service spanning from the 1930s to 1960s beginning in the Chinese army in the 1930s. After emigrating from China to the US, the senior King became a U.S. citizen through his service as a doctor in the military during World War II.

"When my father got to the U.S., the Chinese Exclusion Act was still in place," said King. "The only reason he was granted citizenship was because of his military service, and a provision granting citizenship to any national of a country allied against Japan or Germany."

However, just because King's father was an experienced surgeon and servicemember didn't mean he was immune to the culture of the time.

"My father had to fight hard to become a Navy captain in the 1950s. He was one of the most highly-qualified surgeons in the Navy, but at that time you didn't really see a lot of Asian officers in the military, let alone O-5s," said King. "In fact, the Secretary of the Navy stepped in and overruled the promotion board's findings and that's how he was promoted to O-6."

His father's struggle resonated with King.

"Putting up my right hand to commission as a commander was such an honor," said King. "Knowing that I was able to come in as an O-5 based on my experience - when my father had to fight so hard to get here - is something I'm always conscious of when I'm in uniform."

While King hasn't had the opportunity to perform any surgeries on behalf of the Navy Reserve, he has participated in Global Medic '23, a joint exercise with Navy and Marine Corps medical personnel conducted in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.

"During Global Medic, we trained setting up and operating forward resuscitative surgical suites and shock trauma platoons, which essentially act as an operating room and emergency room, respectively," said King. "We also practiced setting up even more basic areas we could work out of in order to be as close to the front lines as possible."

King said his experience at Global Medic '23 was an experience that stood out the most during his time in the Navy, but he is looking forward to bringing more of his experience to the Navy Reserve.

"I hope to be there when the Marines need me most; on deployment, fully trained and ready to go," said King. "They and their families deserve the best; the best chance to return home to their loved ones. Nothing is more important than that in my mind."

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