James M. Feeney, BA '96, BA '96 & BA '96

Made for TV movie doc

Most television viewers are familiar with iconic physicians Marcus Welby, Luka Kovac, Derek Shepard or Gregory House.  And someday, real-life UB alumnus and physician James M. Feeney, BA ’96, may be added to that list.

Feeney’s work as a trauma surgeon at Froedtert Hospital, a major teaching affiliate of the Medical College of Wisconsin, can be compared to stories from popular medical dramas such as “Marcus Welby, MD,” “ER,” “Grey’s Anatomy” or “House.”  However, Feeney says, “it’s not like the movies, where if the character really wants the patient to survive, they will.  In real life it’s not like that.”  Feeney realized this firsthand during his time serving in the Gulf War.  “It was the first time I saw someone die and I realized that no matter how hard I try or how smart I am, I know that you cannot save every life.”

Feeney served as a U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman during the Gulf War era, and was commissioned a medical corps officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve upon his graduation from Dartmouth Medical School in 2000.  “UB prepared me greatly for getting into a medical school.  I was lucky that everything I wanted was at UB, but it wasn’t spoon-fed to me, I had to go out and find it, which added to my self-discovery,” Feeney recalls of his time at UB.   

Untold stories from the ER

Today Feeney treats up to 50 patients during his trauma service on a single shift, along with attending educational conferences with students at the Medical College of Wisconsin and on-call hours that could last for 24 hours.  Gun shot wounds resulting from gang-related activity is nothing unusual for this trauma surgeon.  “Emotionally it never gets easier, but I’ve learned that people live and die sometimes and that you can change lives,”  In addition to his patient care responsibilities and teaching, Feeney is also involved in research about mass casualty events and planning and trauma-associated abdominal compartment syndrome. “Abdominal compartment syndrome is a fascinating set of events that I had not seen so much until I was a fellow.  I thought there might be a link between mechanical ventilation and abdominal compartment syndrome while I was a fellow in Baltimore; we used a rather novel ventilatory scheme that had, as part of the process, high mean airway pressures.  No one has done the research, though, and so I knew this was just begging to be studied,” Feeney explains.

Feeney, the father of two girls, has been involved in a number trauma cases since his term in the Gulf War.  Later he did his surgical residency at St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center in Manhattan, where he was working on September 11, 2001.  St. Vincent’s Hospital was the major intake hospital for all trauma patients involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings.  “The one thing that still sticks in my mind on 9/11 was the smell of burning metal coming from ground zero that reminded of the Gulf War.”  Feeney describes his time in the Manhattan hospital “a pleasure and a privilege to work with such great minds.”

Enlightenment and self-discovery

In 1992 Feeney came to UB’s Porter Hall with two duffle bags containing all his worldly possessions.  He was fresh off his tour of duty in Japan, arriving at UB for his freshman year two days later.  He started out as an English major, but when was all said and done, he graduated with special honors from with not one, but three bachelor of arts degrees in classics, anthropology and English.  He notes that his heroes were the professors who could look at any situation and understand multiple viewpoints.  Some of his favorite professors were Shakespearean English professor, Richard Fly, PhD, Stuart Scott and Philips Stevens, Jr., PhD.    Feeney became very interested in archeology, and he went on several digs around Western New York.  One dig became truly memorable, because he proposed to his then classmate and now wife, Jennifer Strom, BA ’95 & BA’95.

“My time at UB was a real time of awakening and self discovery that I hope every freshman can experience,” says Feeney.  As president of the anthropology club he developed a forum for UB students preparing them to get into medical and dental schools.  “My motivation for the forum was that many of the people in the anthropology club were pre-med.  So we, as a group, directed ourselves to set up this forum,” Feeney explains.
 

Now living in Wisconsin with his wife and two daughters, Feeney is also an award-winning professional Great Highland Bagpipe musician.  The UB grad began playing the bagpipes at 5 and was a North American amateur solo champion.  He has been a member of the Oran Mor Pipe Band since 2003 and has played with some of the highest caliber of performers in North America.

Written by Jessica Griffin
June 2007

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