Nantucket Doc

From falconry to surgery to football, he has found a way to do it all

By Jacqueline Mitchell

It is the first day of summer and already hordes of merry tourists are tumbling from the ferry onto Nantucket Island, 30 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. Tim Lepore, '70, Nantucket's only surgeon, knows his caseload is about to increase as the island's population swells from 10,000 to 50,000. A year-round resident since 1983, Lepore knows what to expect-scrapes, breaks and bruises sustained on bikes, boats and mopeds. He'll see plenty of poison ivy and tick bites, too.

Island life has forced him to become much more of a generalist than he ever anticipated as a surgical resident at Tufts Medical Center in the mid-1970s. "You name it, it's walked into the ER," he says. Some of Lepore's patients have even walked in on four legs. "I've X-rayed sheep, dogs, goats, birds. I try to oblige the MSCPA, although I'm definitely not a vet."

Lepore's versatility isn't limited to the OR. His office in the compound of gray clapboard buildings that comprise Cottage Hospital reveals the breadth and depth of his interests, decorated as it is with Tibetan prayer flags, Soviet propaganda posters and mounted game. In a more medical vein, Lepore is intrigued by tick-borne illnesses, the local prevalence of which has ballooned in sync with Nantucket's deer population. He's collaborated with colleagues, including Sam Telford, associate professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, to publish papers on the parasitic ailments Lyme's disease and ehrlichiosis.

Born and raised in Marlboro, Mass., Lepore always knew he wanted to be a surgeon, just like his father who honed his skills during World War II. Lepore loved his years in medical school, where he was vice president of his class, and at Tufts Medical Center, where he trained under anatomy professor and later dean of the school, Dr. Lauro Cavazos. After almost 10 years in a private practice in Rhode Island, Lepore spent two consecutive Augusts working in the Cottage Hospital ER, following in the footsteps of his friend Paul Thompson, '73. "On the boat back on Labor Day, I looked at my wife and said, 'Why are we leaving?' " he recalls.

On a recent night at the Whaling Museum, the doctor lectured on the epidemic that wiped out most of Nantucket's Wampanoag Indians in 1763. A licensed falconer, Lepore keeps a red-tailed hawk in his backyard, right next to his celestially accurate replica of Stonehenge. On a rare excursion to the mainland, Lepore traveled to Virginia recently to study flint- and bow-making. He runs 150 miles per week, training that's kept him fit enough to finish the Boston Marathon 39 times. "If I'd stayed in Rhode Island, maybe I'd be a Scoutmaster," he says. "But Nantucket has allowed me to discover and pursue all these interests."

The key to being a surgeon on Nantucket, the key to being anything on Nantucket, really, is keeping one eye on the weather and the island's legendary fog. "The fog could come in-and then what? At least on the Vineyard you can see America. You can't here," he says.

For Lepore, a cover model for this year's Nantucket telephone directory and the official physician to the high school's football team, the benefits of the close-knit community outweigh the disadvantages. Surgery is not only his vocation, but his avocation, he says, so he doesn't mind being on call 24-7. He and his wife, Cathy, the island's school nurse for 14 years, are thankful they had the chance to raise their three children-two of whom have followed their parents into medicine-here in this iconic, far-flung spot. And, like many year-'rounders, he eagerly anticipates that day in September when Nantucket residents once again have their island to themselves. (TM)

Mitchell is a senior health sciences writer in Tufts' Office of Publications. She can be reached at jacqueline.mitchell@tufts.edu. P