Rarely does a charity surprise itself.
It appears, however, that is the case for a group of surgeons from Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, whose new overseas outreach program grossed $100,000 at its very first benefit party last year.
Not long after the windy, music-soaked event at Austin Studios complex, a pediatric team from Austin traveled to Guatemala where they partnered with the Moore Pediatric Surgery Center, which is based there.
The calm, cheerful presence of Porter, 72, anchored both ends of the endeavor.
Born in Houston, Porter was raised in Baytown by an attorney father and a teacher mother, both descended from longtime Texas families.
Joined by two brothers, the trim, still-fit Porter jumped into sports — basketball, football, track — at a young age. He didn’t shine particularly at academics or socializing. Although raised in the Methodist Church, he showed no early aptitude for good works.
“I was a good kid primarily because my parents were strict in the old-fashioned way,” he says. “Baytown was a great place to grow up. We lived on the bay and water-skied from our back yard. We were busy all the time.”
Porter came up to the University of Texas on a football scholarship, but switched from running back to track “for survival.”
“If I was going to medical school, I’d better come home tired but not beat up,” he says with a gleam in his eye. “Coach Royal didn’t miss me.”
At the UT Medical Branch in Galveston, he graduated with a master’s degree in physiology and a medical degree. After an internship in California, he joined the Army.
“In 1968, you could volunteer or you could be drafted,” he says. During his service, he spent time with the Special Forces. “Night parachute jumps seemed to be a bad idea, so I trained medics.”
He learned anesthesiology at Walter Reed Medical Center and set up a private practice in Austin in 1974. Asked to characterize colleagues in his area, Porter smiles even more broadly than he usually does.
“We are happier,” he says. “We are very satisfied with our speciality. We enjoy it. We’re a happy bunch of guys and gals.”
Porter has taken part in 25 medical missions, some with Austin Smiles, which provides reconstructive plastic surgery, mostly in Central America.
“I found out very quickly that you could learn a lot,” he says. “You get a lot back. You’d done something worthwhile and helped someone.”
Fifteen years into his practice, Porter took six months additional training in pediatric anesthesiology.
“You are dealing with children who have different kinds of problems, less ability to tolerate changes in their bodies,” he says. “You have to be much more in tune because things can go very wrong quicker and you have to be on top of the situation.”
Porter retired from practice two years ago, but continues to teach pediatric residents and medical students. He’s delighted with the prospect of an Austin medical school.
“When I walk away totally, they’ll be able to step right in, pick it up and go with it,” he says.
His wife, Debra, is a personal trainer. His two grown daughters from a previous marriage have given him four grandchildren.
The new charity group is called, inelegantly, Dell Children’s Surgical Global Outreach (this columnist is available for free consults on re-branding).
The first mission grew from a lucky alignment with powerful Austin concert promoter Louis Messina and his philanthropist wife, Christine Messina. They linked the Dell doctors with Stephen Moore, CEO of the Country Music Association and chairman of the Shalom Foundation, which funds the surgical center bearing his name in Guatemala City.
The center welcomed the expert help from Austin.
“It’s incredibly well organized and staffed by the Guatemalan people from top to bottom,” Porter says. “They bring patients in, present them to us for surgery and provide for all their needs before and after surgery.”
Besides doing good, Porter says the medical trips — the next one is planned for later this year — benefit the medical personnel when they return Austin.
“To me, they are all about team building,” he says. “When you come back to your job, you are a better team member where you are working. Now you are friends as well as co-workers. It makes you a better physician, nurse, technician — better everything.”