UCSF Professor William J. Dominic, MD, a surgeon who made indelible contributions to burn care in the San Joaquin Valley, retired this summer after 32 years on the faculty at UCSF Fresno in the Department of Surgery.
In three decades at UCSF Fresno, he elevated the standard of burn care to levels recognized nationally, said Sandra Yovino Cramolini, RN, who retired five years ago as nursing director of burn services at the Leon S. Peters Burn Center at Community Regional Medical Center (CRMC).
“He put the Fresno burn center on the map,” Cramolini said.
With a 10-bed inpatient unit, the burn center is one of California's 12 regional burn centers. During Dr. Dominic’s tenure, the burn center received verification from the American Burn Association. The association assesses the standard of care from multiple angles, from acute care surgery to reconstruction, burn grafting outcomes, length of hospital stays – and even how well patients reintegrate into their communities.
“Verification is truly a stamp of honor,” said Nicole Kopari, MD, FACS, a UCSF professor of surgery at UCSF Fresno and Inspire Health Group surgeon who replaced Dr. Dominic as director of the burn center at CRMC. “It means we provide not only the highest standard of surgical care but throughout the continuum of their care.” In addition to acute care burn services, the Leon S. Peters Burn Center is known for offering reconstructive and scar modulation, which is unique to the burn center, she said. “We are also very well-known nationwide for providing excellent after-care for our patients.”
Dr. Dominic credits the team of nurses, technicians and support staff for the high standard of patient care. He built the team, showing an immediate interest in the staff when he became director in 1992, said Cramolini. “I was not in management when he came on board, but I was an educator for the burn center, and he really believed in that team process.”
The burn team has grown to include a nutritionist, a dedicated pharmacist, a child life specialist, a dedicated social worker, and a physical therapist.
Cramolini recalled a time when Dr. Dominic and the team were tested during a gas explosion that brought seven burn survivors at one time to the center. “It was 5 p.m. on a Friday, and we just all came together as a team,” she said. “It just flowed ... it was just seamless.”
Working together, Dr. Dominic and Cramolini were instrumental in designing the burn center at CRMC, which includes 10 private inpatient beds, a dedicated operating room, and a four-room outpatient clinic. “We wanted the center to all be concentrated in one area,” Dr. Dominic said. “We didn’t want to have to walk or take our patients long distances to the operating room or go back between the inpatient side and the clinic side.”
The Leon S. Peters Burn Center is larger than the burn center Dr. Dominic came to run in 1992 at the long-closed Valley Medical Center (VMC) in Fresno. At VMC, the operating room for burn-injured patients was in the old tuberculosis ward, and patients stayed in a multi-bed unit. “We didn’t have a lot of space, but we were pretty busy,” Dr. Dominic said.
Dr. Dominic, was the right surgeon to develop the burn center, said James Davis, MD, FACS, a UCSF professor of surgery at UCSF Fresno, chief of the UCSF Fresno Department of Surgery and an Inspire Health Group surgeon. He had known Dr. Dominic since 1986 when the two surgeons were in fellowship programs at UC San Diego, and he called Dr. Dominic when the burn center's directorship became available in 1992.
“He is a dedicated, dedicated surgeon,” Dr. Davis said of his longtime colleague and friend.
When he arrived at UCSF Fresno in 1992, Dr. Dominic recalled that he and his wife, Susan Dominic, MD, an Internal Medicine physician, thought they would stay five years. They soon enjoyed living in Fresno, near mountains and the Pacific Ocean, and Dr. Dominic found that what drew him to UCSF Fresno – the chance to oversee a burn center and teach surgical residents – sustained him.
“I had done extensive training in burns and trauma and critical care, and I was very excited about having a burn center to run at an early point in my career,” he said. “And I got to teach residents. It was sort of the job I would have designed for myself if I had a chance to do that.”
As a regional campus of the UCSF School of Medicine, UCSF Fresno trains medical students, residents and fellows through a network of affiliated partners, including Community Health System, VA Central California Health Care, Inspire Health and Family Healthcare Network.
“Every year, another crop of residents comes through and you become invested in trying to help their education. And it’s a very rewarding part of what we do,” Dr. Dominic said. “I’ve probably been involved in the training of somewhere around 160 surgeons in the last 30 years – residents and fellows – who are now out there practicing, many of them in the Valley.”
“We were very, very lucky to have him,” Cramolini said of Dr. Dominic’s decision to come to Fresno.
She said Dr. Dominic’s expertise as a surgeon is matched by his commitment to each burn-injured patient and his ability to communicate with their families. “I think what stands out is his passion for his patients. He had probably one of the best relationships with families. The ability to be straightforward with families, listen to their concerns, and spend as much time as needed with them.”
His connection with patients was recognized this past November when he received a 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fresno Madera Medical Society.
One of his patients spoke of his compassion in a video to honor Dr. Dominic. “He brought not just myself, but to my wife and family and friends – hope,” said Pete Dern, a Fresno fire captain, who had burns over 70% of his body after falling through a roof fighting a house fire in 2015.
Dern feared he would never walk again, but through surgeries and encouragement, Dr. Dominic helped him overcome anxiety. “I was pretty scared of what I couldn’t do,” Dern said. “To this day, I still, when I do something that I thought was gone, I send him a text or message. I just want him to know I’m thinking of him when I accomplish something.” For example, Dern said he and his daughter had just hiked Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.
Burn-injured patients have been an inspiration, Dr. Dominic said. For the past year, he considered each operation a privilege he should acknowledge.
“The ability, the necessity, of invading somebody else’s body in order to do something for them is not something many people experience. And so, I think it’s really important for me, as a surgeon, to understand what a privilege that is,” he said. “So, every time I operate now, I give a thought to the fact that it is a great privilege. Something I should really savor.”
Dr. Dominic’s commitment to burn survivors and to the community is to be respected and carried forward, Dr. Kopari said. “It’s important for us to continue his legacy of taking care of these burn survivors as part of our family and part of our community,” she said. “It’s continuing that standard of care and with our goal of focusing on patient outcomes and never compromising on excellent care.”
