Dr. Julie Swain is well-known among San Diego first responders for donning firefighters’ protective gear and entering fire zones to search for horses and other domestic animals during backcountry wildfires. She has rescued numerous animals during the past 23 years, for which the San Diego Humane Society awarded Swain its “Volunteer Excellence Award.”
They know her as a courageous animal lover. What they may not know is that Swain is also a world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon and medical researcher.
She was born in 1948 and raised in Orange County. Neither parent attended college, but they insisted Swain and her twin sister study hard and earn good grades. Both became doctors, borrowing to pay for college and medical school.
After graduating UCLA in 1970 with a bachelor’s in physical chemistry, Swain attended Baylor College of Medicine. In 1973, she became the school’s first woman to earn a medical degree. She spent the next eight years in postgraduate training at Baylor, Harvard Medical School and UC San Diego, where she became chief resident of cardiothoracic surgery in 1979.
“Only 1.7% of the cardiovascular surgeons were women at the time, and there are not much more now,” Swain said. “It’s hard work, high pay and prestigious, but the doors have generally been closed to women. In order to succeed, you have to work harder and be better.”
Her hard work and achievements paid off when, in 1983, Louisiana State University Medical Center hired her to become the nation’s first woman to lead a cardiovascular surgery division. She went on to serve as chief of surgery at four other hospitals and senior surgeon at the National Institute of Health.
Swain has been a practicing surgeon, division chief, professor and researcher — often all at the same time — and has collaborated with researchers from around the world.
“[Dr. Swain’s] research is internationally recognized for pioneering discoveries,” wrote the well-regarded Mitral Foundation in 2017. Among other discoveries, Swain and her team of researchers were the first to demonstrate how use of magnetic resonance during surgery can help protect the brain when blood is cut off and how elevating body temperature can protect the spinal cord. These discoveries, Swain said, resulted from a decade of research and have saved lives.
As part of her efforts, she established cardiovascular surgical brain protection laboratories at the National Institute of Health and University of Kentucky.
Swain’s notoriety and achievements prompted her recruitment to diverse professional projects. She authored or co-authored 73 publications and participated in 175 national scientific presentations. She served on the editorial boards of 12 scientific journals.
NASA recruited her to develop science payloads for space shuttle flights. The Food and Drug istration recruited her to oversee clinical trials. She has consulted for the FBI and Department of Defense and has served on numerous professional and government committees.
Today, Swain, 77, resides in La Jolla while serving from her home as director of research for Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. She spends much of her day on Zoom, working 60 hours a week, which she describes as “partial retirement” when compared with previous working hours.
“I enjoy the work and will continue working as long as I do,” she said.
Swain enjoys more than just medical science work. In addition to helping save domestic animals during wildfires, for the past 20 years she has assisted San Diego law enforcement in searching for missing persons.
As a longtime volunteer with Southwest Search Dogs, Swain trained her dogs, Spencer, a black Labrador retriever, and Rita, a yellow Labrador retriever, to follow scents up to five miles in efforts to find runaway or abducted children and adults in distress. She said participating in rescues brings the satisfaction of helping the community and families through crises, while providing opportunities to work with her dogs.
Swain and her dogs have participated in hundreds of searches, often late into the night and early morning, but she never complains about the hours.
“As a surgeon,” she said, “I am certainly used to working late hours.”
About this series
Goldsmith is a Union-Tribune contributing columnist.
We welcome reader suggestions of people who have done something extraordinary or otherwise educational, inspiring or interesting and who have not received much previous media. Please send suggestions to Jan Goldsmith at [email protected]
