If you ask Sullivan “Sully” Smith, MD, FACEP, he says his kids paid the price for his medical service to the community of Cookeville, Tennessee. 

As an emergency physician, Dr. Sully Smith missed birthday parties, tee-ball games and an entire season of soccer. He imagined his absence would push his four children far away from following in his medical footsteps. There’s a lingering note of surprise in Dr. Sully Smith’s voice when he talks about his kids now; all four grown and pursuing careers in the medical field. 

Emergency physician Skyler Smith, DO, MBA, dresses up like her dad, Sullivan Smith, MD, FACEP, for Halloween.

Three of them specifically chose emergency medicine, the exact job that called their dad away so often throughout their childhood. 

“I figured that might push them away from it, because in a small town, we’re oftentimes understaffed, and when you’re the medical director, you’re the one who steps up and covers when nobody else will,” Dr. Sully Smith said. “So they paid the subsidy price for it, and yet they still chose to do it.” 

Each of them has taken their own unique path to get there, but Torey Killom, DO, Skyler Smith, DO, MBA, and Sullivan Smith, DO, all cite their dad as the reason they ended up in emergency medicine. What stuck with them was not their father’s absence from home, but his presence in a community that looked to him at its most critical moments. 

“I think he raised all of us to know that we had to find some way to give back,” Dr. Skyler Smith, 30, said. “We just saw the way that he was able to do that through emergency medicine and kind of we all followed his footsteps.” 

For Dr. Torey Killom, the second oldest, witnessing his dad’s impact firsthand made his own career path obvious as early as elementary school. Now 40, he serves as the emergency department director at Bradley Medical Center in Cleveland, Tennessee. 

“Getting to see his impact on the community really helped me decide to go into emergency medicine,” he said. “I love the pace of it. You’re never going to see the same thing twice, and you get to see an immediate change in patients’ status. you’re the last line between this patient and death sometimes.” 

For Dr. Sullivan Smith, the youngest, his choice of a career came later in life. When he visited his dad in the emergency department as a kid, other physicians and staff would ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up. 

“I don’t think I could even see over the desk at this point, that’s how I young I was,” he said. “And I would say, ‘I don’t know, but I’m not going to be a doctor,’” 

But somewhere along the way, he said, “I decided it was really cool.” 

Sullivan Smith, DO, Skyler Smith, DO, MBA, Levi Killom, and Torey Killom, DO, pose for a family picture. All four children of Sullivan Smith, MD, FACEP, work in health care. Three are emergency physicians.

Science spoke to him, and he knew he wanted to help people. In July 2024, Dr. Sullivan Smith, 26, started his first year as a resident intern at the University of Louisville emergency medicine residency program.  

“I love it, it’s everything I was hoping it would be,” he said. 

Levi Killom, the oldest child, didn’t go into emergency medicine, but he still chose to give back through the medical field. Levi is a Physical Therapist Assistant at Parkridge Health System in Chattanooga and is the “best of us,” Skyler said. She described her brother as easily the most kind and servant-hearted of them all. 

Dr. Sully Smith and his wife, Rhonda Smith, who is a former emergency medicine nurse, always encouraged their kids to make their own decisions about their careers. At one point, Skyler said her dad urged her to consider art school if medical school did not work out. 

But Dr. Skyler Smith, who is an attending physician at US Acute Care Solutions in Chattanooga, knew she wanted to give back to people in the same way her dad did. One draw especially was the ability to help people even outside of the ER, “out in the wild,” as she put it. 

Those “out in the wild” encounters seem to follow the family around and had a major impact on the kids. 

The stories are endless: Skyler remembers that she was in the second grade and stayed home sick from school on the day her dad saved Dr. William Bass – yes, that William Bass – when he collapsed. Torey, the second oldest of the kids, remembers his mom would drop him off at the EMS Bay so he could run in and take his dad food; the 8-year-old would watch with wide eyes as his father expertly handled the chaos of the emergency room. 

And everyone knows about the time Skyler and Sullivan performed with their choir at Carnegie Hall and their dad saved a man who collapsed from a heart attack. 

Most recently, Skyler, Sullivan and their dad even got a chance to work together in a sense. While celebrating Sullivan’s wedding, the family was at a Nashville steakhouse when someone in the back of the restaurant collapsed and coded. The father, son and daughter ran to the back and started to work on saving the man, who had choked on steak. 

They cleared the man’s airway, felt for a pulse and started CPR. By the time EMS got there, the family team had gotten a pulse back.  

While Sully Smith may have been initially surprised that he did not scare his kids off from the medical field, where they all are now makes perfect sense. 

“I think they were proud of me, to be honest,” Sully Smith said. “You know, it was a sacrifice for them to be gone as much as I was. But on the other hand, I think they were proud of it, and I think that maybe they set their compass from a very young age.” 

All the kids still feel pride in their dad and emphasize the lasting impact he has had on the medical world and community. In Cookeville, Sully Smith worked in the Cookeville Regional Medical Center team for more than 30 years in a service area of 300,000 people. He retired in 2018, leaving behind a legacy that “changed the face of the ER,” Torey said. Beyond his own community, Sully Smith also serves on the ACEP Tennessee Chapter Board of Directors, served as Chapter President in 2018 to 2019 and is the chairman of the state EMS board. 

Every day, Torey said he tries to emulate his dad, who he says is “one of the best doctors I have ever seen in my life.” 

It appears despite Sully Smith’s efforts and expectations, the medical world called to each family member in its own way. Maybe, as Skyler put it, “it runs in our blood.”