Cammack, prominent surgeon and humanitarian, dies

Friday, Dec. 6, 2002 | 9:20 a.m.

Dr. Kirk Cammack was a cowboy at heart.

Cammack noted in an unpublished memoir that when he arrived in Las Vegas in 1960, just out of residency, "it was a frontier town." A short time later, the trauma surgeon found himself in a local hospital operating room, wearing his cowboy boots and removing a bullet from the stomach of a Texas gambler.

He knew he had found his home.

Dr. Kirk Vern Cammack Jr., who co-founded the University Medical Center Lions Burn Unit and counted among his many patients gaming legend Benny Binion and members of the pioneering Lamb and Stewart families, died Nov. 27 at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center following a lengthy illness. He was 75.

Services will be 4 p.m. Sunday at Palm Mortuary, 1600 S. Jones Blvd., for Cammack, who was an original member of the Clark County Health District Board, serving 36 years, from 1962 to 1998. Cammack also removed the appendix from a young future tennis star Andre Agassi and was married to Babette DeCastro of the famed singing group the DeCastro Sisters, his family said. She preceded him in death in 1993.

"My husband was a rebel and a ranchero who loved wine, women and song," said Eve Cammack, Cammack's fifth wife, to whom he was married for the last three years of his life.

Eve Cammack and Cammack's stepdaughter Katherine Black, the daughter of Babette DeCastro, said they want Cammack to be remembered most for his humanitarianism.

"He once operated on an older woman who could not afford to pay the bill, so he said he would accept as payment a sweet potato pie," said Black, a Las Vegas resident. "For the rest of her life, she brought us homemade sweet potato pies every Thanksgiving."

In 1968 Cammack and Dr. John Batdorf, both members of the Lions Club, founded the UMC Burn unit, a hospital spokesman said.

Born Feb. 20, 1927, in Rock Springs, Wyo., Cammack was a Navy veteran who earned his medical degree at the University of Colorado Medical University.

In the 1960s, Cammack volunteered as a civilian surgeon in Vietnam, where he saved the life of a North Vietnamese woman who days after the operation tried to stab him with a scalpel when he momentarily turned his back on her.

Returning to Las Vegas, Cammack not only continued his practice but also became involved with numerous medical associations and organizations, including serving a stint on the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners in the mid-1970s and a term as president of the Clark County Medical Society.

Cammack also served on the board of trustees at Desert Springs Hospital. He served terms as governor, vice president and president of the American College of Surgeons Nevada Chapter.

Cammack was a driving force in the establishment of the American Cancer Society Nevada Chapter and was a past president. In addition to his wife and stepdaughter, Cammack is survived by four sons, Kirk V. Cammack III of Grass Valley, Calif., Michael Cammack of British Columbia and Andrew Cammack and Jonathan D. Cammack, both of Utah; a daughter, Carol Ann Cammak of Las Vegas; another stepdaughter, Jackie Karnavous of San Diego; and eight grandchildren.

The family said donations can be made in Cammack's memory to the American Cancer Society, 1325 E. Harmon Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89119.