| Dr. Thompson was born in Mississippi,
but was raised in a small town in Louisiana. His undergraduate study at Northwestern
Louisiana State University was interrupted by World War II. The Navy sent
him to the University of Mississippi and he then completed his medical studies
at Harvard Medical School. His post-graduate training in surgery was completed
at Charity Hospital in New Orleans on the Tulane Surgical Service under Dr.
Alton Ochsner. He served again in the military during the Korean war, this
time with the First Marine Division.
His substantial contributions to trauma
care earned Dr. Thompson national recognition. When he arrived in Tulsa,
there was no organized Emergency Medical System, and funeral homes provided
ambulance service. He spearheaded the drive to convert the city to a professional
ambulance service with trained personnel. In 1966, he was appointed chairman
of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma for Oklahoma. He also
formed the Oklahoma Trauma Research Society to take ambulance training statewide.
His work with the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma in the
development of standards, optimal care guidelines, and other measures led
to his appointment as the national Chairman in 1978. In 1983, the American
College of Surgeons recognized Dr. Thompson's many contributions by presenting
him with the organization's highest honor, the American College of Surgeons
Distinguished Service Award.
Dr. Thompson is a Fellow of the American
College of Surgeons and a member of the American Board of Surgery, Tulsa
County Medical Society, Oklahoma State Medical Association, American Medical
Association, Tulsa Surgical Society, Oklahoma Surgical Association, Alton
Ochsner Surgical Society, American Association for Surgery for Trauma, Southern
Surgical Association, Societe Internationale de Chirurgie, and Tulane Surgical
Society. Recently an endowed professorship at the University of Oklahoma
College of Medicine in Tulsa was created in his name.
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