The story below is from our March/April 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Meet three more local female trailblazers! Read about Sinkland Farms owner Susan Sink here; Roanoke arts and culture icon Pearl Fu here; and Big Lick Boomerang owner Diane Rumbolt here.
A life-changing injury led to a new career path that provides outdoor lovers lessons in safety.
Courtesy of Carilion Clinic
Dr. Jessica Gehner
Driving North on route 220 in Daleville, it is easy to miss the sign with a picture of two hikers on it if you aren’t looking for it. A narrow, unmarked foot trail leads away from the Giant gas station. In Botetourt County, Daleville is a popular stop for those who hike the Appalachian Trail (AT). Through hikers making the arduous 2,200-mile journey plan to resupply and dine at local restaurants, and many stay at the local hotels to shower and to sleep in a real bed. It’s a 1,400-mile hike from the trailhead at Mount Katahdin, Maine to Daleville. For Carilion Clinic emergency medicine physician Dr. Jessica Gehner, Daleville was a life-saving stop.
Gehner was enjoying a one-year deferment prior to her first year at University of Kentucky College of Medicine, hiking the rarely attempted North to South route of the AT with her dad, Doug, when she had a life-changing injury. Gehner slipped one morning, fell and fractured her leg.
Botetourt EMS was called and she was introduced to Carilion Clinic as a patient. Her injury and recovery would keep her off the trail for six months. Once recovered, her mom drove her and her dad back to the exact same spot, so that they could complete their hike and finish up at Springer Mountain in Georgia.
After a couple of years of medical school, Gehner felt burned out and considered quitting. Hiking was as much her passion as medicine. While in medical school, she says, “I found out about wilderness medicine and decided to pursue emergency medicine.” She saw this as a path to merge her passions.
A serendipitous meeting with Dr. Stephanie Lareau, an emergency room physician and now program director of the Wilderness Medicine Program at Carilion Clinic, helped Gehner blaze her educational trail.
Gehner chose emergency medicine as a pathway to specialize in wilderness medicine. During an internship at VT-Carilion, Lareau was a mentor to Gehner, who soon after became the first Carilion VT Wilderness medicine fellow after completing her residency.
“I definitely feel like the best trail magic I got was in Daleville,” says Gehner. “I’m a religious person and I have received so many blessings from that fall. My career, my home; it opened up so many opportunities. If it wasn’t for the wilderness program, I might not have continued in medical school because I was reluctant to give up my lifestyle.”
During Gehner’s residency, she researched altitude sickness at Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Post-residency, Gehner’s fellowship projects included AT hiker health and safety.
She also started her passion project, an exchange program for emergency medicine with Nepal, as there has never been an emergency medicine program in the country. Each April, Gehner travels to the base camp at Mount Everest to teach.
Now, Gehner splits her time attending to emergency patients at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital and Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington. She also teaches several community-based wilderness safety courses.
“I’ve meshed with the community here. We teach ten wilderness medicine first-aid classes and instruct anyone that would like to learn. Kids and adults train in trail safety and wilderness first aid, and learn skills like how to carry hikers out of remote areas.”
Gehner became engaged to her fiancé, Zach, at the base of Mount Everest in 2018, with a wedding ceremony planned at the site this April. She says, “I took him up on the mountain and he did okay, so I will keep him!”
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