LAS VEGAS (AP) — A surgeon who won national recognition for directing trauma care for some of the most seriously wounded following the Las Vegas Strip massacre in 2017 is being named interim dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The university announced Thursday that Dr. John Fildes will at least temporarily succeed the medical school founding dean, Barbara Atkinson, beginning Sept. 1.
UNLV President Marta Meana noted that Fildes has chaired the medical school surgery department and worked for years at the only regional Level I trauma unit at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.
Atkinson will take an advisory role during the university search for a permanent dean.
The October 2017 massacre that killed 58 people was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.