MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
PETER G. DEVEAUX, MD
Aaron Burch
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Louisville Medicine’s Member Spotlight
section. We’ll be highlighting interesting and exceptional GLMS
physicians on a regular basis beginning this month with Dr. Peter
Deveaux.
B
efore arriving in Louisville last September, Peter G. Deveaux, MD, had been all over the world. Now he’s settled
down in Derby City with his wife, Lynn, and four sons for
what must be one of the more relaxing periods of his career.
He’s served 14 years in the military and been deployed six times
to some of the most tumultuous places on earth, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and more.
Once you’ve been shot at while attempting and succeeding at
lifesaving trauma surgery, the University of Louisville becomes a
drastic change of pace. Though he hangs his hat in this new place,
Dr. Deveaux’s sense of duty to his fellow man hasn’t changed.
Born in Boston, Dr. Deveaux moved to Dubuque County, Iowa,
the setting of Kevin Costner’s famous Field of Dreams, where he
grew up with two younger sisters before finishing high school and
heading to the University of Iowa.
The pursuit of a surgical career led Dr. Deveaux to Chicago
Medical School, now known as Rosalind Franklin University of
Medicine and Science. In addition to his ambition to become a
surgeon, Dr. Deveaux also pursued a Master’s Degree in Pathology.
“I thought it would make me a better doctor if I understood pathology,” said Dr. Deveaux, who went on to Loyola University for
his General Surgery residency, where he married Lynn, his wife
of 18 years, in Oak Park, Illinois. “Things were so kinetic then.
We got married, had a week to honeymoon, and I went back to
residency.”
Throwing himself into his medical career, Dr. Deveaux accepted
a U.S. Army scholarship to pay for his time in college. When he
graduated from Loyola University, he began his three-year obligation as an army general surgeon. However, three years was just
the beginning.
“Medicine is really the only thing I ever wanted to do. You get to
hang around smart people and help others, learn new things and
understand the human body; there’s nothing better,” he said.
“I went up to Fort Wainwright, Alaska, where I was a general surgeon,” said Dr. Deveaux. “I loved my time in Alaska. There
were only two of us, two surgeons. And it was so physically beauti-
ful. I could see
Mt. McKinley
from my office.
I had moose in
my backyard.
I could see
the Northern
Lights
every
night.”
A turn of fate would soon exchange the snow and cold of Alaska
for the desert sands of Afghanistan. When planes hit the World
Trade Center and the war in Afghanistan began, Dr. Deveaux was
part of the second forward surgical team deployed. For six months,
from July to December 2002, Dr. Deveaux lived in Kandahar, the
second largest city in Afghanistan, and took care of a wide variety
of traumatic injuries and general surgeries.
“I think those experiences made me a lot more confident. When
you’re deployed and you see really devastating trauma, and you
see a lot of it, you don’t become numb to it but you begin to process it differently,” said Dr. Deveaux. “I try to turn everything into
a technical problem. ‘Okay, this guy has no legs. How am I going to
stop the bleeding and establish priorities?’ I didn’t become numb
but I was able to step back and say ‘This is a technical problem.’ ”
Despite the responsibilities of the work he was doing, Dr. Deveaux enjoyed his time in the country. “I liked Afghanistan better
than other places. I thought the people were beautiful and dignified. The landscape was amazing, rugged and austere,” he said.
During his experience, he worked closely with local national physicians and spent time caring for both coalition forces and locals.
There were a few small moments of combat nearby, but Dr. Deveaux explained these as minimal compared to his later deployments. “We really didn’t move around much. We were rocketed a
couple times, mortared once. Not a big deal.”
When his first deployment came to an end, Dr. Deveaux visited
Louisville for the first time where he was accepted to U of L for a
Colorectal Fellowship in 2003-04. However, it wasn’t long before
he was headed back overseas.
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