Dr. Brett Steven Nelson, MD

There are four engineers and one rocket scientist in my family, but no one else in medicine. I was exposed to medicine while attending a summer program at Ventura County General Hospital during my senior year of high school. The program was designed to introduce young students to the various specialties of medicine. Largely from that experience, I decided to attend medical school after attending college in San Diego.

After medical school graduation, I did a rotating internship and then went into the Navy for several years as a general medical officer on a forward-deployed WWII-vintage submarine tender, USS ORION AS-18, stationed in La Maddalena, Sardinia. It was an exciting time of foreign travel and difficult medical decisions without much backup. We would often have to medevac patients to Germany or mainland Italy in the dead of night and all kinds of weather. Also, cultural attitudes in other countries are different from those here about what constitutes an "emergency". Once, an …ambulance driver stopped for a cappuccino while the team hand-ventilated a patient during a critical care transport!

During my Navy duty I discovered a love for emergency medicine. My first Navy ER job was in Twenty-nine Palms, California, at a small hospital that didn't even have a CT scanner. I took care of some patients with difficult injuries from military motor vehicle and battle accidents, as this was a "live fire" area where US Marines used rockets, helicopters, Harrier jets, and large howitzer guns in simulated battles. Once, one of our marines was badly burned by the back blast from a rocket launched just in front of him, and I had to put a breathing tube in his throat and fly with him on a helicopter to a trauma center in San Bernardino. He pulled out this protective tube just as we landed, and his first words were, "I can't breathe!"

Regardless, I enjoyed the emergency department and found it challenging to be the doctor first faced with an unknown problem. I enjoy the variety of patients from newborn to geriatric, and the mixture of medical and surgical treatments performed in the emergency room. I trained in an emergency medicine residency for three years and was involved in some very interesting international medicine trips at the training program, including several months in Papua New Guinea, medical aid trips to Northern Mexico, and a boat-based medical expedition to the islands in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. After my residency, I worked for seven years at a Level I trauma center as assistant residency director.

In 2001, my family and I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. My wife is a pediatrician and we both began working at Kaiser Permanente Vallejo, where we enjoy the excellent team spirit, the superb follow-up available after an emergency department visit, and Kaiser Permanente's reputation for clinical excellence.

In Vallejo, I'm working on some administrative projects as the assistant chief of the Emergency Department, and also currently am vice-president of the medical staff. I am also Medical Director for both Benicia and Vallejo Fire Departments. This involves reviewing patient care records on 911 calls, forming county policy for emergency medical care by paramedics and EMTs, attending county EMS meetings, and formulating continuing medical education for paramedics at the two fire stations.

My philosophy on healing is that it is almost never too late to stop a bad habit. So, as I treat a patient with a heart attack or pneumonia, I may point out that tobacco use and lack of exercise are not helping the situation. Many times in the midst of such crises, patients most realize the unwanted impact of these habits. I also believe that a healthy mind will lead to a healthy body, and that the chronic effects of persistent, untreated stress on human health are substantial.

"Starboard!" My own personal passion and stress release is sailing, and in particular, sailboat racing. Almost every Thursday night you can find me out on San Francisco Bay with other local sailors battling the wind and the tides in friendly compet