Elvin Gaines Elvin Gaines’ passion for medicine extended far beyond his role at Simi Valley Hospital and outside the four walls of his long-standing family practice.

Sometimes that passion took him overseas, where he treated villagers with malaria or bandaged the wounds of warring tribes.

Sometimes it took him south of the border, to places like Guatemala, where he delivered a baby in a boxcar—a baby named after him by the thankful parents.

But no matter where he was, Gaines was dedicated to healing and serving others.

Earlier this month, Simi Valley Hospital said goodbye to Gaines, a longtime Simi resident and a medical staff leader from the institution’s earliest days.

He died Nov. 10 at home with his family at his side. He was 76.

He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Geri; their four children, Geralyn, Daina, Darin and Geof; and five grandchildren.

Gaines’ life was celebrated during a memorial service Nov. 14 at Simi Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“Dr. Gaines was more than a consummate professional and patient-focused caregiver,” said Darwin Remboldt, hospital president and CEO. “He was a friend to many of us here at Simi Valley Hospital and in the community. He shaped so much of what the hospital is today, and he and Geri have been exceed- ingly kind and generous in the way they have cared for SVH over the years.”

Gaines came to Simi in 1963 following a surgery residency in Glendale. He joined the practice of J.O. Jones, a key figure in the development of Simi Valley Hospital, as a family medicine specialist. Four months later, he opened his own practice.

Two years after that, in August 1965, Simi Valley Hospital opened, with Gaines serving as the medical staff’s first vice president.

Geri recalls that her husband’s first day was a busy one.

“On the day the hospital opened, he did a surgery and delivered a baby,” she said.

In addition to working at the hospital, Gaines maintained his practice across the street.

“He delivered probably 3,400 babies (during his career). He took care of several generations of families,” said Geri, 72. “He would deliver the babies of babies he delivered.”

Geri said that when Elvin Gaines was a senior in high school, he got polio, which paralyzed him and forced him to learn to walk again.

While his parents wanted him to become a dentist, a roommate convinced Gaines to try medicine, and he became fascinated with it, Geri said.

Son Darin said the field fit his father’s “altruistic nature.”

“He’s always putting others first,” he said.

In 1973, Gaines began going on medical mission trips.

He and his young family would leave their hilltop home overlooking the hospital for three to six months at a time while a partner tended to the practice.

“This was his plan. He wanted from a very young age to go to Third World countries and work in the bush hospitals,” Geri said.

Even when he retired in 2004 after four decades in medicine— he was the longest-practicing physician in Simi at that time— Gaines remained committed to the mission trips.

In fact, the day after he retired, he and Darin took off for Chad, Africa.

“It was fun to be able to work with him,” said Darin Gaines, an architect.

It was on that trip that Gaines noticed a small spot on the underside of his foot.

When he finally got it checked, he was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer.

In a difficult reversal of roles, the doctor had become the patient.

In spite of that, Gaines kept active. He continued serving in the Noontime Rotary Club— which he joined in 1964—or with his church.

He also enjoyed spending time outdoors, hiking or skiing. Even cancer couldn’t slow him down, Geri said.

“With his cancer kind of on his heel, he had to walk tip-toe,” she said. “But at the end of one of our cruises we went to Switzerland, and every morning he’d climb a mountain up there, with the cows and their cow bells. Even with that foot, he couldn’t stay down.”

In the weeks before he died the cancer spread to his brain, Geri said.

But he always kept a positive attitude, even in the toughest of times.

“We’ve known for six years that he had a disease that was going to kill him,” she said. “People would ask him, ‘How are ya, Dr. Gaines?’ And he said, ‘I’m blessed.’”

Gaines told his children on Thanksgiving Day 2005 about his cancer. At the time he was given just six months to live. He thought it was going to be his last Thanksgiving.

“We were blessed to have many more,” Geri said.

Though it’s difficult to go into the holiday season after such a loss, Geri has maintained the positive attitude she says her husband was known for.

When asked how she was able to stay optimistic through six years of illness and now having to say goodbye to the love of her life, she said, “Because I know I’ll see him again.”