Lachlan Noyes is a general, thoracic, and vascular surgeon here in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The son of a DuPont engineer father and anesthesiologist mother, Lachlan was named after his mother’s Scottish maiden name MacLachlan, and goes by “Lach” for short. His parents tell the story of his early desire to be a “marine biologist,” declaring, “First I will be a Marine, and then I will be a biologist.” And that is essentially what happened.
After growing up throughout the Southeast, Lach attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. During this time, a military wanderlust intervened, and he enlisted as a United States Marine, attending Boot Camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. Finishing his stint as a Corporal, he then returned to Duke, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with Departmental Distinction from the Biomedical Engineering department. Lach then spent a year as an offshore oil well engineer with Schlumberger Offshore Services out of Belle Chasse, Louisiana; responsible for oil well information logging and cased-hole production work on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, but his interest in medicine ultimately led elsewhere. Accepted into Medical School at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, he successfully graduated with his Medical Doctor degree on a scholarship program with the United States Navy Medical Corps.
Doctor Noyes subsequently attended initial general surgery residency at Tulane University, but was recalled to active duty with the Navy. Now a Lieutenant Commander, he served as a General Medical Officer with the Marine’s Third Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Intelligence Group in Okinawa, Japan. He then successfully completed the Navy’s rigorous Diving Medical Officer training, and was proud to have served as the senior physician for Naval Special Warfare Group One in Coronado, California, known as the Navy SEALs. Re-entering general surgery residency at the Naval Medical Center San Diego after his stint as medical officer with the SEALs, Dr. Noyes completed his surgical training and was immediately Board Certified by the American Board of Surgery. Now a Commander in the Medical Corps, he was assigned as Ship’s Surgeon to the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63, home ported in Yokosuka, Japan.
Commander Noyes was then assigned as a staff general surgeon to the Naval Hospital in Pensacola, as well as selected as a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons. After the events of September 11th, 2001, the nature of his military duties changed. In support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, along with many others from Naval Hospital Pensacola, Commander Noyes deployed to the Middle East, crossing the Kuwait border into Iraq three days after the ground war started to establish the Navy’s Fleet Hospital Three near Basra, Iraq. As senior triage surgeon, he was responsible for both Coalition and Iraqi enemy and civilian casualties. When the mission of the Fleet Hospital was completed, he returned to Naval Hospital Pensacola, where he was chosen as Chief of Surgery, responsible for a department of five other surgeons and supporting staff. Dr. Noyes then returned to Iraq the next year as the senior triage surgeon for the Marine’s Bravo Surgical Company in Fallujah, Iraq, serving during the definitive Battle for Fallujah in November 2004. Subjected to near daily rocket and mortar fire, he and his team were responsible for the surgical care of nearly one thousand combat casualties during his stint there. With this tour completed, he again returned to the Naval Hospital in Pensacola, where he was elected to the Executive Committee of the Medical Staff.
Commander Noyes was then chosen as a mentor to the fledgling Afghanistan National Army Medical Corps, and was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom to Kabul, Afghanistan to assist with nation building efforts. He served as advisor and mentor to the Chief of Surgery and the surgical staff at the Afghan National Military Hospital. When this tour was completed, he again returned to Naval Hospital Pensacola as a staff general surgeon. During his time in the Navy he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal twice, the Navy Commendation Medal twice, along with numerous campaign and service medals. He is fully licensed to practice medicine in the states of Florida and North Carolina. After successfully completing his service with the United States Navy, Dr. Noyes is now proud to be joining Dr. Stuart Glassman, Dr. Alan Huffman, Dr. Thomas Eisenhauer, and Dr. John Kogoy in the practice of general surgery at Pardee Surgical Associates in Hendersonville, North Carolina.