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David Donielson, M.D.

 

 

Gentle, kind, brilliant, tough-as-nails David Donielson left his beloved family and his tormented body on December 4, 2023.  He died in the arms of his wife, Heather, with his sister Diane Donielson DeTroye by his side.

 

Dave was born in 1954 in Nebraska, to parents who had met at Luther College, Iowa.  He was proud of his Midwest roots and Norwegian heritage, always ready with an Ole and Lena joke.

 

In 1960, Dave's parents moved with him and Diane to the sunnier skies of Saratoga, CA, where Dave grew up among vineyards and apricot groves, living on an idyllic cul-de-sac and playing with the 23 children who lived in its eight houses -- with many of whom he remained lifelong friends.

 

Dave attended Westmont High School in Campbell, CA, where he was on the varsity swim team, in hiking, ski and other clubs, and from which he graduated with honors in 1972.

 

The year he graduated, Dave made a trip to Oregon and fell in love with it.  Soon after, he started college at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where he earned a B.S. in Biology in 1978.  He stayed to finish a second bachelor's degree in chemistry, which was when he fell in love again: this time with Heather Henderson, a Portland, Oregon native who was at the time a senior at the U of O.

 

For the next 45 years, Heather was the love of Dave's life, and he of hers.  They were married at First Unitarian Church in Portland in 1982.

 

By this time, Dave had begun pursuing his dream of becoming a physician and was attending medical school at Oregon Health Sciences University.  He graduated in 1984, and he and Heather were lucky enough to both be offered places in graduate training programs at Yale University.  They moved to New Haven and spent four stimulating, exhausting years while Heather earned her doctorate at the Yale School of Drama, and Dave completed his internship, residency, and two fellowships in pediatric cardiac anesthesia and high-risk OB anesthesia.  Dave was honored to be named Chief Resident during his final two years at Yale.

 

In 1988, Dave joined Northwest Anesthesia Physicians (NAP) in Eugene, Oregon and spent 30 fulfilling years with this wonderful, close-knit group of talented physicians.  Dave was always happy to lend a hand where it was needed, serving as president of the Oregon Society of Anesthesiologists, legislative liaison for the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the president of NAP, a member of many hospital committees at Sacred Heart and then RiverBend Hospitals, and a valued core member of the O.R. team at Slocum Orthopedics.

 

Dave and Heather were blessed with two beautiful children -- Whitney and Logan, both named after mountains.  Despite an incredibly busy call schedule at the hospital, Dave was a devoted father and very involved in the children's lives -- taking the family on vacations and camping trips, helping at school functions, applying his medical skills to injured family pets, teaching the kids to drive and then to maintain their first cars.  Dave was a fantastic father, his children's biggest fan, and Whitney and Logan adored him.  He was and always will be their hero.

 

Dave was active and athletic all his life.  He loved skiing (cross-country, downhill, Telemark and skate), ski mountaineering, and snowshoeing.  He was an accomplished mountain climber, summiting major peaks all over the world, from Alaska to the Andes.  He was an especially avid cyclist (road biking, criterium racing, cyclocross, mountain biking, regional organized rides), with close friends in several regular riding groups.  He bike-commuted to the hospital almost every day of his career, even though it meant waking up at 5 AM to be in the O.R. by 7 AM. 

 

Rock climbing, however, was Dave's greatest passion.  It was on a rock face, with a rack over one shoulder and his chalk bag clipped to his harness, where his spirit truly soared. Dave discovered rock climbing during high school in the late 1960s and spent months every year living at Camp 4 on the Yosemite Valley floor, an original '70s "dirtbag climber."  Everywhere he went, Dave found walls to challenge him and enjoy: Lover's Leap near Lake Tahoe, the east face of Mt. Whitney, the ice routes of Mt. Washington, the Shawangunks in upstate New York, Devil's Tower in Wyoming, Broughton Bluff and Smith Rock in Oregon, and climbing areas in France, England, Wales, Austria, New Zealand -- even the sides of buildings if he was in a city and saw a tempting route up a stone front.

 

Dave retired from his medical practice in 2017 and within a month was starting a second career in wilderness medicine.  He joined Lane County Search and Rescue and Eugene Mountain Rescue, and in 2019, he started a four-year program to earn his Diplomate in Mountain Medicine from the Wilderness Medical Society.  He also volunteered at COVID vaccine clinics all over Lane County, administering thousands of vaccines.

 

In May of 2022, Dave was on a solo hiking trip in the Wallowa Mountains of Eastern Oregon when he suffered a rare cryptogenic spontaneous carotid artery dissection.  Because of his remote location, it was several hours before he was found and evacuated to the nearest medical center, by which time the dissection had turned into a massive infarction (stroke). leaving him paralyzed on his left side.  Three weeks later, he suffered a second, hemorrhagic stroke.

 

For the next 18 months, Dave worked heroically to recover, exercising and rehabbing diligently despite agonizing neuropathic pain that started on the first day of his stroke and did not relent for a minute, day or night.  As hard as he worked, as determined as his attitude was, the pain finally started to win, and his condition began deteriorating.  Dave passed away from complications of the stroke on December 4, 2023.

 

Heather, Whitney, Logan and Diane are exceptionally grateful to Dave's devoted private caregivers, including Lewam, Jen, Rinzin and Tonia; to his many wonderful therapists, doctors, and colleagues; and to the staff at Pete Moore Hospice House and the volunteers at End of Life Choices Oregon for their support and care of Dave during his final weeks of life.

 

Dave leaves behind his beloved wife Heather; his adoring children Whitney (Elon) and Logan (Emily); his dear sister Diane and her son Taylor (Chrissy); his loving sisters- and brothers-in-law; nieces and nephews and many other extended family members; and dozens and dozens of devoted friends.

 

Everyone who knew Dave loved him and was loved by him.  Everywhere he lived or traveled, he made lifelong, loyal friends.  Everyone he met he treated as his equal.  He was generous, caring, goofy, humble, funny, smart, and incredibly hardworking.  He saved lives, changed lives, brightened lives.

 

A memorial for Dave will be held at Mt. Pisgah this summer; please contact the family for details.  Dave requested before his death that any donations made in his memory be given to The Access Fund (an organization that protects and restores climbing areas around the U.S.) or to Mt. Pisgah Arboretum in Eugene.

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David Donielson Obituary | Altogether