Nathan Kemalyan

Dr. Nathan Kemalyan’s (83) favorite part of his work as a surgical and burn specialist and medical director at Oregon Burn Center isn’t just helping his patients feel better physically; it’s comforting them through extreme difficulty and watching them leave with new hope and a second chance at life.

“Everybody who enters the burn center is in crisis, whether or not they have life-threatening burns,” said Kemalyan. “A burn is about more than physical injury; it’s about your identity as a person and whether you are going to be acceptable to the public or your loved ones; it’s about how the world sees you and how you see yourself. It’s our job to walk with our patients through that experience.”

Kemalyan and his team work to close wounds, whether that’s through surgery or aiding the burns as they heal gradually on their own. And while recovery is always the hope, it isn’t always the reality. In those cases, Kemalyan’s job transitions from healing to helping those patients and their families prepare for death.

Whether helping the 95 percent who will be able to leave the burn center, or the 5 percent who won’t, the most challenging part of Kemalyan’s work comes in the threat of emotional and mental fatigue that exists when treating his patients. This form of burnout, known as “compassion fatigue,” can result from providing intensive care for others on a constant basis. Every patient adds to that fatigue — especially the ones who don’t make it — and Kemalyan has to not only pay attention to his own health but to the health of his staff, making sure each physician, nurse, therapist, and other team member adequately recovers after dealing with a difficult situation. Here, Kemalyan says, is where his faith is key as he finds sustainment through prayer and giving his burdens to God daily.

As part of his work at the burn center, Kemalyan is also an associate clinical professor at Oregon Health & Science University, where he works with students in their residency program. Kemalyan’s involvements outside of being a physician, surgeon, and professor further exemplify his love for serving others and his commitment to the medical field. He is the current president of the Oregon state chapter of the American College of Surgeons, and he is a member of the American Burn Association’s International Outreach Committee. Additionally, he has been involved with short-term mission work in Zambia, where he helped organize the burn care unit for a large mission hospital.

Kemalyan says everything up to this point — his love for science, his heart for serving, and his career success — has been directly influenced by his time at PLNU.

“I not only learned the basic mechanisms of biology and chemistry and the importance of research to a thriving professional career, but also how to be a servant leader and how to grapple with the interface of science and faith,” said Kemalyan. “All of these things helped me set a firm foundation for my career, and they still inform the way I practice medicine.”