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Portland ©bseruer
|uly2 7, 2011
Surgeon Follows Heart to Mohave Dessert
Local man combines Navy career with medicine
m C ari H achmann
I he P ortland O bserver
Steve Noble, a Portland local and
general surgeon specializing in tho-
racic surgery, will journey to the
middle of the Mohave dessert in
California, leaving behind his fam-
ily, wife and four kids, to mend hearts
in Twenty-nine Palms, the largest
Marine base in the world.
As a six year old. Noble became
fascinated by the human organ sys-
terns flipping through encyclope-
dias kept in his g randparents’
Parkrose home and since then, his
interest in medicine has never waned.
“Stephen was very much that
typical first bom child, wanting to
be good at whatever he set out to
do, said his mother, Anita Noble,
Combining the Navy and medi-
cine. Noble's career path winds near
to his lamily s tree as both of his
grandiathers were merchant seamen
while his grandmothers worked at
the Multnomah County Hospital,
before it became OHSU, where
Noble completed his residency.
Noble decided to become a gen-
eral surgeon during his 3rd year at
the graduate School of Medicine at
Indiana University, where he had
joined the Navy one year prior as a
first level naval officer,
Three hospitals removed from
the war’s front line in Iraq and Af-
ghanistan at the National Naval
Center in Washington D.C., and
upon completing one of three naval
residencies, Noble encountered his
first opportunity to treat Marines,
Just 12 tQ 24 hours after injury,
war victims are treated on the scene
by local medics, flown to a military
hospital in Iraq or Afghanistan, then
to Germany where they are stabi-
lized and finally they land on an
operating table in front doctors such
as Noble, other surgeons, and medi-
cal staff.
One war victim’s story aw akened
Dr. Steve Noble is an officer in
Noble to the level of sacrifice U.S.
the U.S. Navy.
soldiers are willing to commit to at
Not long after, Noble was scrub­
such a young age. The individual bing hands with a transplant fellow
being treated told the practicing prior to an open heart procedure
surgeon that he the true hero was when the student surgeon ques­
his fellow soldier, who took a bullet tioned a then dread-locked Noble
in the back as he lifted the injured about his future in medicine.
Once an Alberta street youngster and
now a general surgeon, Steve Noble will
follow his dream of becoming master
repairman o f the human heart, chest, and
lungs. From the trauma centers o f local
hospitals, Noble leaves his familiar home in
Portland to perform “bread and butter
surgeries" on operating tables in the
Mohave dessert.
young man into safety.
When Noble said he was leaning
“It was a humbling experience.” toward general surgery, the student
said Noble. “1 was impressed by the retorted that people either knew or
Navy’s men and women who at such did not know if they were going to
a young age dedicated themselves be a surgeon.
to give service to their country.”
Memories flashed back to high
school counselors that advised him
away from a career in medicine and
other doubters and cynics that
seemed to sway him from his dreams.
One college professor had even sent
a letter home to his parent declaring
he had a zero chance of getting into
medical school.
Having already proved them
wrong, the young student had twice
the motivation to advance his ca­
reer in medicine, and told the trans­
plant fellow, without a doubt that he
would become a general surgeon.
Originally bom in California,
Noble spent his childhood years in
northeast Portland off Alberta Street
where he attended the Baptist
Church and Trinity Lutheran El­
ementary. Noble attended high
school in Toldeo, Ohio and studied
biology/pre-med at Xavier Univer­
sity in New Orleans, a historically
black and Catholic university.
After graduate school, Noble ar­
rived in Portland to complete a one
month study program, but found a
permanent residence after accept­
ing a full, 4-year contract to practice
general surgery at OHSU.
“It has been a dream come true to
come back home and practice sur­
gery in Portland,” Noble said.
Living in town with his wife and
four children and, Noble became
involved with the Portland gang
task force when he treated a young
trauma victim at Emanuel Hospital
who had been shot at a funeral.
With sons in the age of influence of
gangs, Noble decided to get more
involved.
“Homicide is the number one
killer of black males aged 16-34,”
said Noble, interested to understand
how he and the community can help
young black males and inner city
NEW S E A S O N S
I M A R K E T
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