“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.