A. Brent Eastman, MD, FACS, grew up as the son of a locomotive engineer in remote Wyoming. His career and exploits became the stuff of legend. Yet, because Dr. Eastman is a quiet, steady presence, many of those stories remain little known.
Few know that he dated one of President Lyndon Johnson’s daughters or that he climbed mountains for recreation—summiting the Grand Teton at midnight during his college years.
Most surgeons familiar with recent history recognize Dr. Eastman as one of the indefatigable surgeons at San Francisco General Hospital in California who helped drive the trauma revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. His accolades include serving as Chair of the ACS Board of Regents and later as the 93rd President of the ACS.
But did you know that his first public recognition came in Reader’s Digest? Therein lies a tale.
After working during college as a river raft guide on the Snake River in the Pacific Northwest—where he met Lady Bird Johnson and her daughter—Dr. Eastman attended the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. There, he met his future wife, Sarita, who also was a medical student.
These were formative years at UCSF. Many of the leading surgeons of the day and future pioneers in trauma trained at this esteemed medical center. Dr. Eastman continued his training as a general surgery resident at San Francisco General Hospital, where J. Englebert Dunphy, MD, FACS, served as chair and F. William Blaisdell, MD, FACS, was on faculty. Future leaders such as George F. Sheldon, MD, FACS, Donald D. Trunkey, MD, FACS, Cliff Deveney, MD, FACS, and Karen Deveney, MD, FACS, also passed through this remarkable program.
Surgeons have confronted trauma-related injuries since time immemorial. It remains a leading cause of death among young people, claiming thousands of lives in the US each year. By the late 1960s, building on work from multiple centers, a systematic approach to trauma care began to take shape.
Prehospital care evolved from ambulances that often doubled as hearses to mobile intensive care units. Trauma teams emerged, and their coordinated approach would spread across the US during the next 50 years. Concepts of resuscitation became standardized. Intravenous nutrition and central venous access expanded the capabilities of modern care.
Trauma care continued to change rapidly. For example, in 1968, the artist Andy Warhol was shot multiple times at close range. This event is a landmark trauma case because it highlights the transition from rudimentary, prehospital trauma management to a modern surgical intervention. In New York City at that time, the typical sequence of events unfolded after he was shot, including transporting Warhol in a combined hearse-ambulance to the nearest hospital, where on-call surgical residents began his care.
Without detectable vital signs, he was nearly declared dead when an attending surgeon, passing through the emergency department, intervened. The surgeon opened Warhol’s chest and restored enough circulation to proceed to the OR. After multiple operations, Warhol survived.
If this event is not widely remembered, it may be because later that same night Robert F. Kennedy died after being shot, pushing Warhol’s case to the back pages.
Just 3 years later, when Dr. Eastman was chief resident 3,000 miles away on the West Coast, Wayne Lindblom was struck by earthmoving equipment at a construction site in San Francisco. A young Dr. Sheldon and his chief resident, Dr. Eastman, were alerted to the case. Resuscitation began immediately, and the patient was transported rapidly to the OR, where he underwent hours of surgery.
Lindblom’s postoperative course was, as surgeons often euphemize, “stormy”: shock, stress ulcer hemorrhage, renal failure, liver failure, subhepatic abscess, prolonged total parenteral nutrition, and dialysis. Ultimately, Lindblom survived. Dr. Eastman, meanwhile, completed his training and began practice in San Diego.
A few years later, a representative from San Francisco General Hospital contacted Dr. Eastman and suggested he obtain the January 1974 issue of Reader’s Digest. The Lindblom family, struck by the dedication of his caregivers, had alerted the magazine to his remarkable rescue and recovery.
In the article, Drs. Sheldon and Eastman were referenced by fictitious names, as it was considered unethical at the time for physicians to publicly claim credit for their work.
And that is the story of Dr. Eastman’s first “publication,” as Drs. Dunphy and Blaisdell would later tease him.
Today, Dr. Eastman and his wife, pediatrician Sarita Eastman, MD, live a quiet life in the hills near San Diego, surrounded by their children and grandchildren. In the California sunlight, they reflect on poetry, music, and life in medicine.
Dr. Eastman is a living legend in trauma care and his many accomplishments exemplify surgical excellence. He helped transform the care of the injured patient, quietly and without fanfare. He is yet another ACS Fellow who has served all with skill and trust.
And if you don’t believe it, you can read it in Reader’s Digest.
Disclaimer
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ACS.
Dr. Tyler Hughes is a retired Kansas rural surgeon. Born in Texas, he trained in Dallas but spent most of his career working as a surgeon in McPherson, Kansas. In retirement, Dr. Hughes is traveling the world in search of surgeon stories.
