The Maritime Provinces of Canada may seem like a world apart from the Tennessee Valley, but according to Dr. Blaise Baxter, the two aren’t that different: “People are very friendly here in Chattanooga just like they were in Canada. It’s nice because I’m constantly reminded of home.” Dr. Baxter, a neuro-radiologist in private practice working with patients in the Tennessee Valley and beyond, went to medical school in Halifax, Nova Scotia and did his neuro-radiology fellowship in London, Ontario. He was trained to treat brain aneurisms and found himself overworked and exhausted, doing diagnostic work during the day and performing the treatment procedure at night. He loved his work but felt the burden of his long work days. He was missing out on things at home, “I was working a tremendous number of hours, and I wasn’t having enough family time.” A man of faith, Dr. Baxter prayed about his professional and personal struggles and trusted God to lead him on the right path. The right path, as it turns out, was Chattanooga.
After hearing about Chattanooga from a Canadian Colleague, Dr. Baxter decided to take a look. Traveling to a conference through the Atlanta airport, he and his wife extended their layover and traveled to Chattanooga for a few nights. They liked what they saw. “We looked around at the schools and the area and were impressed with the exceptionally friendly people that we met. We thought, maybe God is leading us to move to Chattanooga.” Shortly after their brief visit, the Baxter’s decided to take another look, this time with their three school-aged daughters, “We went down for an entire week, looked around and thought it seemed like a great place to move.”
Relocating to an entirely different country can be a monumental task but Dr. Baxter and his family trusted God to help them on their journey, “It takes a great deal of paperwork to get the visas and everything needed to move from Canada to the U.S. so we prayed that God would make it clear.” After taking incredible leaps of faith, selling their home and making financial commitments in Tennessee, the Baxter’s visas were approved in a relatively short amount of time. They made their official move to Chattanooga in July of 1999.
Dr. Baxter found Chattanooga to be a refreshing change for his family. He was finally able to strike a balance between his family and his career. As an interventional neuro-radiologist, Dr. Baxter works primarily with stroke victims. Contrary to popular opinion, this does not mean that he works exclusively with the elderly. Stroke victims come in all shapes and sizes, particularly in the “Stroke Belt”: the Southeast portion of the US, including the Tennessee valley, which has a stroke rate 300 times the national average. Dr. Baxter has seen children as young as nine that have experienced a stroke: “We see thousands of stroke patients ranging in age from 9-89.”
Dr. Baxter and his colleagues use diagnostic catheterizations to check the blood supply of the head, neck and brain for blood clots. With the use of cutting-edge technology, Dr. Baxter and his colleagues are able to use a minimally-invasive procedure to remove the clot, oftentimes reversing the devastating effects of a stroke. He noted, “Removing the block and allowing the blood flow to resume to that area of the brain is the one thing that has really been shown to give patients major improvement in their lives and a much better outcome.” He is proud of the work that he does with his team of interventional radiologists, nurses and radiology techs: “We are one of the top three centers in the nation for the amount of stroke work that we do.”
Along with the professional satisfaction that his practice brings him, Dr. Baxter has found a great deal of spiritual satisfaction in the Chattanooga area. “My faith is pivotal and central to my life,” Dr. Baxter says about his strong religious convictions. His family began attending Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church shortly after moving to the area. They were impressed with the church’s very active youth program and decided to get themselves and their three girls involved: “My wife and I have been teachers in the youth program mentoring small groups of students as they move from 6th through 12th grade.”
Dr. Baxter and his wife have found a great deal of satisfaction helping with the youth program, but with his youngest daughter set to graduate from Baylor this year, he felt the need to expand his involvement to young adults and men. He found the perfect opportunity for this type of ministry in the Men’s Fraternity. According to the group’s website, Men's Fraternity was designed to help men come together and strengthen each other through weekly sessions that combine biblical teaching and small group interaction.
Men’s Fraternity was created in Little Rock, Arkansas by Dr. Robert Lewis and has gained popularity throughout the country. The Chattanooga group was started by Tim Filston, Associate Pastor of Congregational Life at Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church. The design and leadership of the program has been led by Reverend Filston along with Dr. Baxter and other men involved with the church. Since its inception in 2007, men of all ages and from all areas of the community have met on Thursday mornings to learn and discuss how to best fulfill their roles as fathers, husbands and spiritual leaders.
Dr. Baxter has enjoyed this ministry and gave a brief run-down of what the weekly meetings are like: “We get together at Finley stadium on Thursday mornings from 6:30-8:00am, grab our breakfast and sit down with 5-7 men at a table. Each table includes men who are roughly the same age. They generally stay together throughout a session dedicated to a specific topic. We watch a 45-minute DVD and then discuss topics generated from the video. In our groups, we share and learn together. Men discover that they are not alone and have many of the same challenges and opportunities to be better husbands, fathers and spiritual leaders. It’s a great vehicle for men to come together and grow together in a positive, supportive and biblical manner. It’s also a great way to meet men from throughout the Chattanooga community.” He finds the group to be very fulfilling and encourages men to learn more about Men’s Fraternity by going to the Signal Mountain Presbyterian web site (www.signalpres.org). He also suggests that men call Reverend Filston (886-2190) about attending a meeting.
Dr. Baxter and his family took a risk when they moved to Chattanooga from Canada but they trusted their faith to get them through. He is grateful to our fair city for providing him with a wonderful place to build his professional, personal and spiritual life. Dr. Baxter has returned the favor to the Chattanooga community by providing both spiritual guidance and exceptional medical care to the city’s residents. Perhaps Dr. Bill Dudley, Senior Pastor of Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church, summed it up best when he said, “Blaise has a true serving heart. He has the wonderful gift of encouragement. He can celebrate the simplest achievement and is so full of compassion.”