The Man Who Helped Define Trauma Care in America — and Called Tulsa Home
By Saint Francis Health System Staff
When Saint Francis Hospital earned Level I Trauma verification from the American College of Surgeons, it was the culmination of years of work, investment and commitment. It was also the fulfillment of a vision that traces back decades — to a Harvard-trained surgeon from Mississippi who came to Tulsa in 1956 and spent the rest of his life making sure the most critically injured patients had a fighting chance.
No one would have been prouder of that achievement than Dr. C.T. Thompson.
From Navy Corpsman to National Leader
Dr. Thompson's path to Tulsa began in Brookhaven, Mississippi, where he was born in 1925. He served as a Navy hospital corpsman in World War II and again during the Korean War before earning his surgical training at Harvard. When he arrived in Tulsa, he came ready to work.
He became Saint Francis Hospital's first chief of surgery and, by 1966, its interim CEO. Hospital founder W.K. Warren Sr. tasked him with identifying the critical medical programs Tulsa needed most. Dr. Thompson responded by recruiting top specialists and establishing Surgical Associates of Tulsa — a group that would play a defining role in the hospital's early growth.
Reshaping Trauma Care for the Nation
Dr. Thompson's most far-reaching contributions came through his leadership of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, which he chaired from 1978 to 1982. Under his guidance, the committee launched the Advanced Trauma Life Support program — a standardized approach to trauma care that became the foundation of emergency medical education across the country and remains in use today.
He also led a revision of ACS trauma care guidelines that shifted the focus from resources to outcomes — a change that gave rise to the trauma center verification programs that define the standard of care nationwide. The very accreditation Saint Francis earned is built on a framework Dr. Thompson helped create.
Building the Infrastructure Tulsa Needed
Back home in Oklahoma, Dr. Thompson was equally driven. He organized the state's first burn center. He spearheaded Tulsa's first citywide ambulance service and pre-hospital provider training program. And in 1979, he co-founded Tulsa Life Flight — Oklahoma's first air ambulance program — bringing advanced trauma care to rural communities across the region for the first time.
That program continues to save lives today.
A Legacy That Lives in Every Trauma Bay
Dr. Thompson received the ACS Distinguished Service Award and the Surgeons' Award for Distinguished Service to Safety, among many other honors. He served as a clinical professor at the University of Oklahoma Tulsa Medical College and held leadership roles across multiple surgical societies.
But perhaps his greatest legacy is simpler than any award: the countless lives saved by the systems, standards and programs he built — and the generations of physicians he inspired to carry that mission forward.
When the trauma team at Saint Francis springs into action today, they're working within a framework Dr. Thompson helped shape. That's not history. That's the care happening right now, in Tulsa, for this community.
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