Two Truths and A Lie by Dr. John Dumas

Some of our Trivia Tuesday contestants have been asking me to give a few more details on the 2 Truths and a Lie that we posted last week for the trivia question so here it goes:

#1 – I have 3 US patents. True statement.  I do currently own 3 patents on orthodontic brackets that have been in the works for about 6 years.  I still have one patent pending and hope to have the bracket system to the market sometime soon!

#2 – I have a tattoo. For those who thought I had a tattoo….I’M SHOCKED!!!  No ink for me!

#3 – I survived a category 5 hurricane – also a true statement.  In 1992 while serving as a General Dentist in the United States Air Force, I was stationed in Homestead Florida with my wife when Hurricane Andrew rolled thru town.  The hurricane was originally categorized as a category 4 but later called a category 5…one of the most powerful storms to ever hit North America.

 Dr. Dumas’ office after Hurricane Andrew

Sustained winds hit 175 mph with maximum winds thought to be over 200 mph.  It was so difficult to categorize because all of the monitoring devices were destroyed during the storm.  I was the disaster team Triage Chief at the time of the storm and my wife worked at the local hospital which was the only hospital south of Miami to stay open during the storm.  We rode out the hurricane (about 5 hours including the eye) in the hospital which was completely devastated by the storm.  24 babies were delivered while under emergency power due to the changes in atmospheric pressure, many of them named…..you guessed it….Andrew!

The dental clinic at the base where Dr. Dumas worked after Hurricane Andrew

My role as the triage chief had little value as the Air Force base was almost completely wiped out and the local community had little to no medical capabilities.  Never did we simulate a disaster that came close to the scale of Hurricane Andrew!  South Florida was forever changed by the storm.

A typical suburb site after Hurricane Andrew

I returned 10 years later and much of the area looked just as it did after the storm.  What was once an important Air Force fighter base, now only houses DEA flights guarding the southern coast from illegal drugs and (ironically) hurricane chasers for the National weather center.

And now you know “The rest of the story”.