Trevor Martenson ’94: His Return to New Mexico

Trevor Martenson ’94 is a man of many stories. A husband and father to five children, a family physician, hunter, and family friend of mine, Dr. Tevor, as I call him, is one of the most interesting people I know. Growing up, I would go on many hunts with him and his best friend, my dad, Eric Weinstein ’94. As we drove hours off-road to get to a spot in rural New Mexico, hiking through various terrains, he would tell stories. Vivid, intricately woven stories that detailed aspects of his life. So, I’m going to let him tell one.

“I grew up in Albuquerque, but my dad lived in western New Mexico when I was a kid. Had his dental office in Gallup, and his ‘right-hand man’ was a Zuni woman named Edwina. She helped my dad so much and basically ran his office. She’s always a delight, and I formed a good relationship with her when I was a kid. [So], Zuni and the western part of New Mexico, the Native Heritage [and peoples] was always a big attraction.”

“When I got into medical school in my third year, my first rotation was family medicine. I elected to go to Tohatchi, New Mexico, which is close to Gallup. And it was there that I decided it would be fantastic to be a rural family doctor out [on] the Indian Reservation. [In 2008], in residency, I chose to go to Zuni given that my dad was still [in western New Mexico], and of course, I knew Edwina and her family. 

It was fantastic. It was a huge adventure medically. [I got] to see stuff I never saw on the East Coast or anywhere else. You didn’t know what was coming [into the hospital]. Stuff [that would go] straight to the trauma bay in [other places, wouldn’t] in Zuni. We were the doctors there to help. So those [were] the memorable things.

After I finished at UNM [medical school], I went to Pennsylvania to do my residency. [My Family and I] settled in Pennsylvania for eight years and then decided that we wanted a sabbatical, and those memories from Zuni came flooding back. And so we stepped out on a whim, left our home in Pennsylvania and our community, and moved to Zuni, not knowing how long we would stay or how it would go but excited about the prospect. And then, at last, I got to become that family physician that I had dreamed of, out there in rural New Mexico on the rez. It turned out to be everything I had hoped for, a great balance of primary care, building relationships with people, [and] also getting to deliver babies [while simultaneously working in] the emergency room. And then the culmination and the peak [of our time in Zuni] was when we got pregnant with Joshua and had a home birth there at our little house in Zuni. He was born surrounded by all his brothers and sister.

I think Zuni is probably the best hospital I’ve worked in. Just the quality and the sincerity in the investment the doctors and the staff had. You know, it wasn’t super high-tech. We didn’t have operating rooms, we didn’t have an MRI, you know, that stuff, but we had people who really cared and were well trained. It was fantastic and inspiring, and I was proud to be a part of it.

When COVID hit, [though], nothing came in[to the hospital] except for COVID. It hit the community really hard. You know, just a whole tier of elders… died. We didn’t know what was happening. [There were] hundreds of deaths, and I remember a… tragic case of a woman losing [her parents and] husband from the same household infection. [It] made me recognize how tightly woven the community is. In Lancaster, [Pennsylvania], you would hear some people [on] your block had died, but not really know them well, whereas, in Zuni, the losses were so much more tangible…much much closer to home. It was an appreciation of that deep community but also the tragedy of how hard that was.

[The] biggest thing [for me] was entering that community a little bit. It just felt like almost every medical interaction I had was like, ‘oh, you know, I know people from your Kiva,’ or ‘I treated your grandfather a few weeks ago,’ or you know, ‘I heard about when you were sick and flown out to Albuquerque last month.’ [So] in the end, it made the whole medical experience much more significant and fulfilling.

I’m just so grateful for those four years out West. I’m grateful to my family for following me and supporting me on a crazy adventure. I’m grateful to Zuni for inviting me in not only as a doctor but as a friend and someone who got to play a part in that community. It is a place that I’ll continue to go back to frequently, see my friends, and continue those relationships.”