Mother's Example Led To Heroic Life
Small Town Boy Grows Up To Be Big Sur Hero
It was significant moment in the life of James Betts. He was only nine years old when his father died.
Then, despite the grief, despite the financial hardships that faced the family, his courageous mother forged ahead and raised her three children, operating a restaurant in Bennington, Vermont, every day of the year, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Seeing his mother’s commitment and dedication to her children, working so hard in that small rural town, set an example for young James that resonated throughout his life.
During those days of his youth, while attending grammar school and helping his mother at the restaurant, James found that he was drawn to another very positive influence. Firefighters. He viewed them as great heroes, often riding his blue Schwinn Tiger bicycle with the cool chrome headlight to the fire station to watch the large door open, and the massive red fire truck roar out onto the street, siren blaring, and the heroes visible inside wearing their fire resistant turnout gear and metal helmets. This elicited a smile and an adrenaline rush for the young boy sitting on the blue and white saddle seat of his slick new bike, watching heroes in action, hoping that some day he might be able to join their ranks.
At just 17 years old, he graduated and enrolled in college to make his mother proud, since he was the first in the family to take that step into higher education. Although becoming a firefighter was still on his mind, at some point during his college days, he made the decision to pursue medicine, to become a doctor, which surely would place an eternal smile on his loving mother’s face.
Following his graduation from medical school where he chose pediatric surgery as his specialty, the 20-something Vermont native began a 10-year residency in four different interrelated programs that took him to Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where his knowledge, experience and skills as a pediatric surgeon grew immensely.
“When I was training, we were Renaissance surgeons,” Betts recalled about his early days as a surgeon. “We were committed to the total surgical care, and that was very attractive to me."
In 1983, once he had completed his training in pediatric surgery, Betts chose California as his next destination, and specifically the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland. And for the next 40 years, Betts worked 80-hour weeks and was on-call every other weekend. His time in Vermont waking up early created a very beneficial habit for him over those four decades. He woke each day at 4:30 a.m. to get to the hospital early to organize and complete his office work before delving into his medical duties.
Through his own practice, he offered clinics on Tuesdays and Thursdays and performed surgeries on Wednesdays and Fridays. "We do a lot of emergency surgeries,” he explained. “They’re not all trauma-related, but some are. We take care of newborns with congenital anomalies."
When Dr. Betts reached the age of 60, when many choose to slow down their work life, he went in the other direction. After giving a pediatric trauma talk in his new hometown of Big Sur to volunteer members of the fire department in 1991, he was asked if there was any interest in receiving the formal academy training. An 80-hour work week pretty much nullified that idea. However, the offer reignited his strong youthful interest in firefighting enough so that 10 years ago, he made the decision to pursue the training over a six-month period on the weekends; the hospital allowing him to adjust his schedule.
Once his training was complete, he became a full-fledged weekend firefighter and also worked as an EMT on the search and rescue team in Big Sur.
"It was a natural progression for me,” said Betts. “I go down probably two or three weekends a month, whenever I'm not on call at the hospital."
He is part of a 31-member team that answers about 300 calls a year, focusing on cliff and back-country rescues, structural and wildland firefighting, vehicle accidents, EMS and back-country wilderness medicine. They also conduct a variety of specialty exercises, such as chainsaw operations in the wildland environment.
"We run more technical rescues than most departments because we have 60 miles of coast that's all sheer cliff," said Big Sur Fire Chief Matt Harris, who said this past year has been extremely challenging on firefighters. "It has been the biggest fire season on record, as far as acreage burned. At this point, we're already over 4 million acres in California. We're just going through a significant fire season.”
Having the expertise of a physician like Betts has turned out to be an invaluable resource for the department during such a year of tremendous fire trauma.
"What he sees and deals with in the ER helps us better prepare patients, better treat them in the field, which helps the the doctors achieve more successful outcomes and ultimately the patient's success," said Chief Harris.
Now, at 73 years of age, Betts views himself as a physician on the fire department, committed to serving as either a complement or resource to his colleagues.
"I don't haul hose up the hill like I used to,” he chuckled. “I am there and I respond, but I'm not the first one over the hill for any rescues. But I train with everyone and I want to be a resource. I want to be able to contribute.
"For me, it's never been about the money. The mission has always been what has guided me along this long, hard path. As long as I'm here on this earth, I want to continue to be a resource for the hospital and the fire service. I just want to do my best."
Now that’s the attitude of a true hero that would make his mother proud!
