Doctor To Detail Days of ‘Compassion Amidst the Chaos’

Published 1:30 am Thursday, January 28, 2021

Chris Davis, a doctor who lived on Vashon from 1996 to 2015, will present a talk about his new book, “Compassion Amidst the Chaos: Tales from the ER,” at Vashon Rotary’s meeting at 11:45 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, on Zoom. A question-and-answer session will follow the talk.

Davis and his wife Kathleen, who now live in Ballard, are both active members of Rotary. Kathleen founded Shape Up Vashon, among other activities during her time on Vashon.

Chris’s book, which was just published, is a memoir reflecting on his long career and many accomplishments and adventures along the way.

After completing George Washington University School of Medicine in 1972 and a year-long internship, Chris served for one year as a U.S. Air Force Flight Surgeon on Air Force Two (the Vice President’s aircraft), one year in Iceland and one year at the Pentagon. Two of his cases in Iceland resulted in his receiving the Air Force Flight Surgeon of the Year award and the US Meritorious Service Medal.

After the Air Force, he completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins and Internal Medicine at GW and began teaching Emergency Medicine at GW as well as Maryland and Virginia. After moving to Vashon in 1996 and Seattle in 2015, he taught and practiced in the Pacific Northwest and also served as guest faculty in Laos, Bhutan, Cambodia and Uganda hospitals.

Drawing on 35 years of experience in treating over 100,000 patients, Chris’s book follows his personal journey and lessons learned from his life caring for people in their most vulnerable moments. He shares his most memorable stories from the front lines of the emergency room, some uplifting, some tragic and some sharply funny.

This book is intended to give readers glimpses into the intensity, fear and satisfaction of the life of an ER doc who to this day remembers vividly the names and faces of those patients who depended on him in their moments of greatest need.

The Zoom link for Chris’s talk can be found on vashonrotary.org. For more information, write to vashonrotary@gmail.com. Copies of the book are for sale at tinyurl.com/y4hvks9n.