‘One person at a time’
U.S. Army veteran and UF alumnus Garron Lukas, M.D. ’75, has traveled the world to perform surgeries for patient
While serving in the U.S. Army, Lukas was a surgeon for the Delta Force, an elite special operations unit.
Courtesy of Garron Lukas
Oct. 30, 2025 — Garron Lukas, M.D. ’75, has practiced medicine all over the world, but his training began at the University of Florida College of Medicine.
Lukas spent years serving his country and providing medical care to communities in various other countries after attending UF. A veteran and a former professor of surgery, he is now enjoying retirement in the mountains of South Carolina.
After graduation, Lukas moved to San Francisco for surgical training before joining the U.S. Army. He worked for seven years as a surgeon for the Delta Force, an elite special operations unit, where he traveled worldwide for various missions and training.
Lukas heard about the Friends of the Children of Haiti medical mission trip through his wife, Sharon, a nurse.
Courtesy of Garron Lukas
After serving in the Army, Lukas became a professor of surgery at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There, he met his wife, Sharon, a nurse.
In 2004, Sharon attended a conference, where a colleague briefly mentioned an upcoming medical mission trip to Haiti. The organization was at risk of canceling its trip if it couldn’t find a physician to accompany the nurses going. Sharon volunteered her husband.
“It was a whole new part of my career,” Lukas said.
He began going to Haiti with the Friends of the Children of Haiti, setting up in a port town on the southern coast called Jacmel up to four times a year for two weeks at a time to provide general medical care. But after the first couple of years, it became obvious to him that patients had no access to necessary surgical care. So, he started a surgical program there, performing about 1,500 surgical procedures over 40 trips, with most of the procedures related to traumatic injuries or cancer.
Lukas traveled to Haiti up to four times a year for two weeks at a time to provide general medical care; after a couple of years, he started a surgical program there.
Courtesy of Garron Lukas
“It was me or nothing,” he said. “We did everything we could do safely when it comes to surgery in an underdeveloped country.”
Lukas and the Friends of the Children of Haiti team performed surgeries in a small hospital that had just one operating room and four beds.
After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 220,000 people, Lukas returned to the hospital to treat those who were injured by falling structures. He said in some cases, they were forced to do amputations outside. Aftershocks from the earthquake were still hitting the town, and when they would occur, everyone in the hospital would run outside for fear of structural collapse.
Lukas worked with local physicians to provide necessary surgical care to the community of Jacmel, including after a devastating earthquake in 2010.
Courtesy of Garron Lukas
Lukas said his training at UF and time in the Delta Force prepared him well to work in Haiti, specifically when it came to working under circumstances that were less than ideal, often under stress. It was a lesson in perseverance.
“The need was so overwhelming,” he said. “I once asked a physician who had 300 people in his clinic office how he did it. He said, ‘Take it one person at a time.’”
Lukas said he’s always wanted to serve his country either in or out of the military. He felt it was his obligation to give back, and he always had an inclination to pursue medicine. He was able to return to the Gainesville campus about two years ago to see the changes it’s undergone since his graduation in 1975.
“I was amazed when coming back,” he said. “It’s a tremendous university and medical school.”
To current medical students, Lukas shares this advice: Be passionate about medicine. It’s a way of life, not a job. The rewards, he said, are far greater than anything you put into it.
