The Doctor is in

OSBURN — An unusual career path, with twists and turns all over the globe, eventually led Dr. David Lawhorn to the Silver Valley.

Now that he’s here, Lawhorn said he has fallen in love with a community that quickly embraced he and his wife, Robin.

“I discovered early in my career that I liked working in the more rural places where I can utilize every ounce of everything I’ve learned in emergency medicine,” Lawhorn said.

In 2014, Lawhorn began work as the chief medical officer and director of emergency medicine at the Shoshone Medical Center in Kellogg. The Chattanooga, Tenn. native’s passion for emergency medicine has taken him around the world, and Lawhorn was recently honored with the Master of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine Award for his efforts in the field, which include authorship of the book “Setting-Up a New Emergency Medicine Business: A Guide to Getting Started in your own Emergency Department Practice.”

“Out of every award or recognition that I’ve ever gotten, this is certainly one of the most meaningful because it’s sort of a recognition from my peers nationally of whatever contributions they think I’ve given to emergency medicine,” Lawhorn said.

Initially, Lawhorn said he pursued a chemistry degree in college since he was unsure of what he wanted to do for a career and felt it would be a solid foundation for whatever he eventually chose. To put himself through college Lawhorn worked as everything from a waiter to a construction worker.

When he found a job as a phlebotomist at a major hospital, Lawhorn found more than just a paycheck.

“That was a turning point, I felt a connection and like medicine was the right thing for me to pursue,” Lawhorn said. “It was fast moving, there were lots of different things that came in, and it was always interesting. I just really wanted to learn what to do when a real emergency exists.”

Lawhorn then went to the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, where he completed medical school with an Army scholarship. A requirement of the scholarship was military service and training following graduation, but Lawhorn said he didn’t get into the emergency medicine program he applied for.

In what Lawhorn described as another twist, the Army allowed him to spend the next year interning at a hospital in Chattanooga. When that was done, Lawhorn’s knowledge of German landed him in Europe, where he was assigned as a general medical officer for an artillery brigade.

“We were assigned to the guys with the bullets the guns and the bombs,” Lawhorn said. “I ended up going to the first Gulf War with my unit. We were on the front lines, moving and shooting, and I was in the desert for six or seven months.”

After his tour of duty in the Middle East, Lawhorn was assigned to create and run a clinic in the Alps, where he worked for a little over a year.

Once his military service concluded, Lawhorn went back to the south, where he completed a four-year residency program in emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University. Tennessee would his home for more than a decade after, with Lawhorn starting a successful private emergency medical group just outside of Nashville.

One day though, Lawhorn said he and Robin took a step back from the hustle and bustle of city life and decided they wanted to have another adventure before they got too old. There was a desire, he said, for the outdoors and ski-filled winters.

“I just sort of put my name out there, at that point all over the world because I was open to going anywhere,” Lawhorn said. “I very quickly got a call from folks here associated with Shoshone Medical Center.”

The Lawhorns were invited out to Kellogg on a Monday, and said they put an offer on a home prior to leaving on Friday. Lawhorn, who is familiar with how the 2,000 critical access hospitals in the United States operate, said he had a “Wow” moment when he walked into the doors at the Shoshone Medical Center.

“It did not take me very long to recognize that this is a very special critical access hospital here,” Lawhorn said. “I wouldn’t expect people outside of medicine, and outside of the valley, to know that — but it’s a gem.”

The facility and support systems at the center, Lawhorn said, make it an exceptional hospital and one of the most “solidly viable” critical access hospitals in the nation. In addition to the facility is the people, both his colleagues and the patients he serves.

“One of the things that’s striking, to both me and my wife, are the people here — they’re just so genuine, kind and caring. There are just some great people, their heart is in the Silver Valley and they want the best for it,” Lawhorn said. “I had a really solid skillset that I felt I could offer to the community and it brings a lot of meaning to be able to give that.”