Surgeon relieves disaster trauma worldwide
Watching Dr. Susan Briggs return to Logan International Airport last week after helping earthquake victims in Bam, Iran, it was easy to understand why dozens of nurses and doctors regularly -- and at a moment's notice -- volunteer to follow her halfway around the world.
Her silver hair slightly matted, her hiking boots well worn, the 60-year-old founder of the International Medical Surgical Response Team -- the country's first surgical disaster relief unit -- strolled into Terminal E Wednesday night pushing her own luggage cart.
Bursting with energy even after an all-day flight, she flitted through the 100-strong welcoming crowd, greeting Massachusetts General Hospital co-workers with a hearty "Hey, how are you, kiddo?," lavishing praise on fellow team members in front of their husbands and wives, and hugging nearly everyone in sight.
After Michael D. Brown, an undersecretary with the federal Department of Homeland Security, commended team doctors for saving a baby's life after the devastating Dec. 26 earthquake, it was Briggs's turn at the microphone.
"No insult, Mike," she said, with a grin, "but it wasn't the doctors who stayed up all night with that baby. It was the respiratory therapists."
The rest of Briggs's team -- 57 local doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and paramedics who helped treat nearly 800 earthquake victims during a historic, 12-day volunteer mission to Iran -- cheered wildly. As always, Briggs looked after her own, team members said.
"We would be getting tired, [and] it was kind of scary over there, and she would come in and talk to us. Within seconds, everyone would be like, `It's OK. Susan's here,"' said Patricia Owens, a registered nurse at Mass. General and member of Briggs's elite relief team. "She's kind. She's compassionate. She wouldn't ask you to do anything she wouldn't do. . . . I don't know what makes a great leader. She has it, whatever it is."
Born in Virginia, Briggs began her career as a nurse at Mass. General and worked her way through medical school, eventually becoming the hospital's first female chief resident. Currently the associate director of trauma service at MGH, she is also an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, co-author of 28 books, and is among the National Library of Medicine's top 150 women in medicine.
Famous for her boundless energy, Briggs is up at 4:30 a.m. most days, singing in the shower and feeding her two dogs before leaving her Winchester home before dawn. "I don't think I've ever seen her work less than 14 hours a day," said her husband, Dick Briggs, a retired pediatrician and emergency room physician, with whom she has raised three children.
"Actually, it gets worse when she gets sleep," said Geoffrey Bartlett, 27, an EMT on the disaster relief team who has witnessed Briggs work days without rest. "Nobody can keep up with her then."
Ever modest, Briggs says it's easy to push yourself when you love what you do.
"I think so many people after 30 years are sorry they went into something. This is my 30th year in surgery and I can't be happier," she said. "Unfortunately, I'm a little too happy, because there are always new things I want to try."
Assisting with disaster relief efforts often heads that list. Starting in 1985, when she aided dozens injured in a gigantic mudslide in El Salvador, Briggs has traveled the world to help those in need, treating burn victims in Russia, teaching acute trauma and cardiac care in China, even serving in Germany during the Gulf War with the Army Medical Corps.
Approached by federal officials in 1998 to create the country's first civilian international disaster triage team, Briggs convinced MGH officials to sponsor the unit, which has helped typhoon victims in Guam and rescue workers at the World Trade Center following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
A few weeks ago, Briggs's team became the first Americans to enter Iran in an official government capacity (President Bush asked them to go) since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Though in a hostile land, Briggs was calm as ever, team members said. And busy, too: In addition to her surgical duties, she served as the team's chief liaison with Iranian officials, helped deliver six babies, cracked jokes, badgered co-workers to call their families, helped pitch tents -- even picked up garbage when it was time to leave.
All in a day's work, Briggs shrugged.
