Volume 7 • 2020 • Issue 3

Dr. GordMorris: Focus onWhat’s Important When Fort McMurray was evacuated, Dr. Gord Morris used frequent flier points to help members of his staff at Franklin Dental Centre travel to stay with their extended families across Canada. One went to Nova Scotia. Another went to Newfoundland. “One of our hygienists and our denturist were on the last flight out before they closed the airport,” Dr. Morris says. “On Highway 63, they drove past an RV and trailer park on fire. Propane tanks were exploding and shooting across the road, narrowly missing vehicles.” Dr. Morris felt that the crisis was an opportunity to demonstrate his loyalty to his staff. “The practice was shut down completely for 10 weeks. But CDSPI was very good about getting us the funds we needed so I was able to keep paying full salaries,” says Dr. Morris. “Afterward, 12 of my 13 staff members came back.” Before the practice reopened in July 2016, Dr. Morris had to discard and reorder all his supplies due to smoke damage. “Everything, even implants,” he says. Now, in early April 2020, Dr. Morris is thinking a lot about how to weather another crisis. “I’m over 60 so I’m not working with patients during COVID-19,” he says. “But I keep in touch with them. My patients have my cell number and they text me. I’ll make sure they get the emergency care they need.” He’s doing self-development through online CE courses and keeping in touch with other dentists on dental Facebook groups. Dr. Morris looks to the struggles of the past to put the current one in perspective. “My father became a pharmacist right out of the medical corps in WWII,” he says. “There is a lot to be learned from the resilience of those who lived through the world wars and rebuilt afterward.” didn’t ever return. “It was a slow start,” says Dr. Heinzelman. “It definitely gave us a big hiccup, especially because when we opened a surgical centre, we weren’t accounting for a major fire in our budget. That was hard.” The estimated cost of the fire, which continued to smoulder until the summer of 2017, was about $10 billion. In the years since, Fort McMurray has recovered. “People talk about the fire still, but we’ve moved on from it,” says Dr. Tran. Some of the houses that were burned have been rebuilt. The woodland around Fort McMurray has rebounded; the root systems of the trees that burned sent up fresh shoots that are growing into a new forest. Indeed, according to the Forest Service, areas where the wildfire was most intense, the regrowth is now the strongest. I ssues and P eople 21 Issue 3 | 2020 |