Nemours Children’s takes pride in spotlighting the remarkable individuals who go beyond their roles as physicians. R. Lawrence Moss, MD, FACS, FAAP, is president and CEO of Nemours. In addition to leading Nemours and advocating to redefine children’s health, Dr. Moss is an avid outdoorsman who loves the personal challenge of extreme sports.
A pediatric surgeon of more than 25 years, Dr. Moss joined Nemours in 2018. On his office wall is a large frame full of thank you cards from families. Photos of four infants at the top of this catch his eye.
“Those four babies are kids that I put on ECMO in the very early days of ECMO,” says Dr. Moss. “In each case, the family was told by the referring hospital that their newborn was going to die unless we tried a last-ditch, Hail Mary therapy called ECMO. All of those babies lived. They have all graduated from college, gotten married, and had kids of their own. One of the most rewarding things in my career has been continuing to receive follow-up notes about their progress and successes. There is no other profession on earth that can allow one to have that kind of impact on people’s lives. Being a doctor is not only a privilege, it is a sacred gift.”
Dr. Moss says many surgeons are drawn to the field because of the immense technical challenges, rigor, and discipline required to be successful. While he loves those things, it was the opportunity to have such a profound and permanent impact on the lives of people that attracted him.
“After more than two decades of caring for the tiny subset of children, with very complex problems, I felt a calling and an obligation to have an impact on a much wider population, all children,” says Moss. “This is what led me to Nemours and this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help Nemours lead our country in creating the healthiest generations of children. Nemours is unique in its multistate, multisite footprint, serving children in the most advantaged circumstances to the most challenging circumstances, and everything in between. Our focus on treating the whole child is woven into our organizational DNA. We can do something here that no other system on the planet can do. That is immensely exciting and stimulating to me.”
Dr. Moss describes surgery as a high-intensity field that matches his innate attraction to high-risk, high-reward activities, including his interests beyond medicine. He loves aggressive downhill skiing through the trees, which requires attention and focus, not unlike what is required in surgery. He delights in sharing that passion with two of his three children. He says the third one is smarter than that! They have skied in some of the country’s most beautiful and challenging places.
Dr. Moss’s eyes light up when asked to recall a particular memory of how his hobbies intersect with his career. One particular sporting passion had a huge impact on his journey as a healthcare leader. He used to be a very aggressive mountain biker. While mountain biking in rural New England, he fractured his femur in multiple places. This resulted in four operations, a compartment syndrome, an intensive care unit stay, and legitimate questions about whether he would ever return to work. After a hard-fought recovery, he’s grateful to be 100%.
During his hospital stay, he learned that two errors occurred in his care. These were major near-miss events, meaning they could have caused serious harm.
“This personal face-to-face encounter with quality and safety issues in a hospital pointed me toward a focus on quality and safety in my career,” he says. “This created new opportunities to contribute to the well-being of children and many new relationships which I cherish today. Being a doctor is not just what I do, it’s who I am. I am enormously grateful for the privilege and deeply humbled by the courage and compassion I have seen in the families of my patients.”
