Faculty spotlight - Dr. Andy Anderson

Originally from Meridian, MS, Dr. Andy Anderson worked as a first responder with the Suqualena Volunteer Fire Department and as a FireFighter and Metro Ambulance as a Paramedic, before returning to medical school years later. During his time as a Paramedic, Dr. Anderson grew frustrated by the limited scope of practice, specifically sharing one instance where a patient needed pericardiocentesis. Because he wasn’t able to perform the procedure in the field, the patient died.

Dr. Anderson initially set his sights on nursing, with plans to become a CRNA, but another call as a Paramedic made him question if this was the right path for him. He responded to an unresponsive patient who was in V-Fib. After defibrillating the patient, she went into a 3rd degree block. The patient was stabilized and doing well after being intubated and external pacing was started. On arrival at the local ER a "Flight Surgeon" from the Naval Air Station started explaining how the patient was still in a 3rd degree block and needed to be defibrillated two more times. The Flight Surgeon explained that the external pacing was hiding the V-fib. After this encounter, Dr. Anderson started having second thoughts about going into nursing school. He reports thinking, "If this guy got through medical school I've got to at least give it a shot." His self-proclaimed “better half”, encouraged him to pursue medical school instead.

Since UMMC’s admissions department was not impressed with Dr. Anderson’s 1.9 GPA from when he was a very unmotivated undergraduate, he opted to start over and retook all relevant coursework, all while working full time and raising a family. He completed medical school at UMMC and began his work in the department, where he remains today.

Dr. Anderson has had some interesting experiences providing medical support. In 2012 he was approached by the History Channel to provide medical support during the filming of “Full Metal Jousting,” a reality series which pits the country’s top riders against one another. For the last nine years, Dr. Anderson worked with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics as one of their SWAT medics, supporting everything from presidential visits to Mississippi to high-risk take downs involving narcotics. Dr. Anderson currently serves as a Deputy with the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department as another medic for their SWAT Team.

Dr. Anderson has been married to his wife Donna Gail for 34 years, and they have two children and one grandson.