By Dr. Jonathan Gates
I suspect we will never really determine the source of the quote “great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss things, and simple minds discuss people.” It has been attributed to any number of well-known folks from the early part of the 20th century including Eleanor Roosevelt, Hyman Rickover, Printer’s Ink, etc. The concept is understood that great thinkers are of value to society. Lenworth M. Jacobs, MBBS, MPH represents the great mind in surgery and in humanity and is always thinking about ideas that will benefit mankind.
This October, Lenworth Jacobs, MBBS, MPH, is retiring from Hartford Hospital. It is truly the end of an era in trauma care not only in the state of Connecticut but far beyond. The impact that Len leaves behind is extensive and far reaching for he has been instrumental in the elevation of trauma care and trauma awareness in the state of Connecticut, in New England, in the nation and on the international stage.
Len was born and educated in Jamaica in the West Indies. He graduated from the University of the West Indies Medical School obtaining an MBBS in 1970. During his last year in medical school he did an externship at Massachusetts General Hospital and I think was sold on Boston thereafter. Following medical school graduation and a year as an intern in Barbados he returned to Boston. He completed his early surgical training at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Boston’s Children’s Hospital and then completed his surgical senior and chief years training at Boston Medical Center (BMC) with the pursuit of his MPH at Harvard School of Public Health sandwiched in between. I am sure this Boston connection and the exposure to the greats of surgery at the time with Francis D. Moore, Sr. and Erwin Hirsch contributed immensely to his interest in trauma care.
He joined the staff at BMC and became involved with Boston EMS where he became legendary on the streets of Boston. In 1983, the same year I returned to Boston, Len left Boston as he was recruited to Hartford Hospital as the Director of Trauma and Emergency Medicine. He rapidly rose to the rank as Professor of Surgery at the University of Connecticut. This position was eventually morphed into a departmental position at the University of Connecticut and Len was the natural choice as the Chair, a position he enjoyed until 2015 as he became more and more drawn in the direction of surgical education. Len became the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at the University of Connecticut and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Hartford Hospital.
Len was recently honored at a retirement party at Hartford Hospital and the words spoken were nothing short of inspirational. He was described by many to be a man of principles, humility, passion, vision, entrepreneurship, and compassion. He was described as a talented educator, the ultimate physician and surgeon, a mentor and a tireless advocate for those who are less fortunate. He was often thought of as the clear thinking conscience of the hospital whatever the mission. What I recognized is that he has a hidden gift that allows him to use all these modifiers to see ideas where others do not and then to weave those forces together to operationalize these ideas for the greater good. This innate ability to mobilize these resources across multiple disciplines is a masterful art. Len has what many of us recognize outright as class.
Len’s accomplishments during his tenure at Hartford Hospital are emblematic of an individual with passion, insight and an incredible ability to move an idea from thin air into a reality. A short summary of those accomplishments start with the introduction of Connecticut’s first helicopter service known as LifeStar that was housed at Hartford Hospital in 1986. Since that time this effort has grown to three helicopters that have transported upwards of 32,000 patients. He was a founding member of the state chapter of the Committee on Trauma in Connecticut and led that effort for years. He was the power behind the development of Hartford Hospital as a Level I Trauma Center in the 1980’s and the evolution into a Trauma Institute, a recognition that continues today. The Trauma Center at Hartford Hospital admits upwards of 2000 patients per year since mid-1980. His experience with the frequency of penetrating wounds in Boston and Hartford spawned the idea that there was a need for the education of surgeons in the specific treatment of those penetrating wounds. He established the Advanced Trauma Operative Management (ATOM) Course in 1989 that is an educational component of the American College of Surgeons and is currently practiced worldwide. In the early 2000s, Len urged hospital administration to invest in an educational building and curriculum that would become a destination setting for the education of physicians, nurses, students and fellows from afar. This vision evolved into a 10,000 square foot building that has attracted those across the globe to practice their craft in the safety of a simulated environment. The list of companies that have aligned with this Center for Simulation and Education (CESI) reads like a Who’s Who in American ingenuity and in true Len fashion has been verified and reverified by the American College of Surgeons as an educational center of note.
As Len reduced his clinical load and concentrated more on surgical education he was, as was an entire nation, stricken by the inexplicable carnage in the Newtown, CT shooting in 2012. Len had the foresight to recognize the need for the nation to recognize, reorganize and educate itself in the care of the injured fellow citizen. His insight was to empower law enforcement, fire, pre-hospital providers and the layperson to recognize the signs of bleeding and begin the initial control of that bleeding. This education of the population would quell the fear and turn every citizen into a solution to the problem of violence so that they could begin to provide the initial care to a fellow human being in times of need. Len used his extensive connections in law enforcement, the military, his surgical colleagues, and his established reputation to embrace the fear and create the Stop-The-Bleed campaign. This campaign is now an educational program of the American College of Surgeons and is spreading nationwide and worldwide to empower the people to help one another during an active shooter situation.
I recently left Boston and came to Hartford Hospital to join the surgical staff. I was offered the opportunity to move into Len’s office and jumped at the chance in hopes that some of his expertise would rub off on me. Len, in usual fashion graciously moved out of the office without a word. The next thing I know he announces his retirement. No such transference of intellect has occurred as of yet. I am not so sure how I wronged him but my hope is that in his retirement he will continue to mentor the younger generation, help steer the older generation and continue to offer his wise counsel as we continue to seek him out. Len is always willing to talk, listen and brainstorm a problem. Nothing is outside his area of broad interests and everything is subject to his intellectual solution.
Everyone who knows Len recognizes him as a true gentleman and a scholar with the gift of eagerness to help and the focused insight to make a favorable impact on most everything he sets his mind to. His contribution to trauma care is immeasurable as he has left an imprint worldwide for generations to come. I am humbled in writing this, honored to count Len as a mentor and friend, and inspired to stand on the shoulders of those greats who have walked before us.
Thank you for all you do Len and Godspeed.