Nevada Cancer Center partner, Dr. Bringhurst, dies at 37

When Dr. Chris Bringhurst moved to Las Vegas nearly four years ago, it was a homecoming of sorts as he stepped on land that his ancestor, local Mormon leader William Bringhurst, had walked 140 years earlier.

In his short time in Las Vegas, Chris Bringhurst built a reputation as a caring oncologist, an outspoken anti-smoking advocate and a community-minded doctor who conducted seminars on cancer awareness.

Chris Brian Bringhurst, a partner in the Nevada Cancer Center, died Saturday in a rollover accident on Interstate 40 in rural Arizona that injured his wife and four children. He was 37.

Services will be 2 p.m. Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 375 N. Hollywood Blvd. Palm Mortuary is handling the arrangements.

"He was a very compassionate man who took time with his patients, loved his family and was worshiped by his children," Fred Waid, Bringhurst's brother-in-law and the executive director of the Nevada Cancer Center, said.

"When he came home from work each day he would first greet his family and spend time with them before he turned on the TV or picked up the newspaper."

Bringhurst's concerns for safety undoubtedly played a major role in saving the lives of his loved ones. He insisted that everyone wear seat belts and he was driving at the proper speed, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.

The car carrying the family home from its vacation in New Mexico apparently slid on a patch of ice, hit the median, rolled over and crashed into an embankment 10 miles west of Seligman, Ariz., at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.

Bringhurst suffered blunt head trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident hospitalized his 30-year-old wife, Kirsten, with head lacerations and serious leg injuries. The couple's 9-year-old son, Joseph, was hospitalized with a skull fracture but has since been released.

Also treated and released from a Flagstaff, Ariz., hospital were the couple's 7-year-old daughter Amber, who also suffered a head fracture, their 3-year-old daughter Elisa and their 1-year-old daughter Aria.

Shocked friends remembered Bringhurst as a man who devoted many hours to church and charity.

"He was an excellent physician who despite his busy schedule always found time to help people. He had a total lack of arrogance," said Las Vegas attorney Jan Stewart, bishop of the Frenchman Hills LDS Ward.

As president of the church's Elder's Quorum, a priesthood, Bringhurst conducted meetings and supervised home teaching programs, Stewart said.

Born July 24, 1961, in Fontana, Calif., Bringhurst was the great-great-great nephew of William Bringhurst, who was assigned by Brigham Young to take 30 men to Southern Nevada in 1855 and build the Mormon Fort at what is now Washington Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard.

Bringhurst was the eldest of five children of Wayne Bringhurst, a teacher and asphalt company owner, and the former Rita Christensen, both of whom survive him and reside in Fontana.

At 6-foot-4, Bringhurst was an athletic standout at Fontana High School, excelling in wrestling and basketball. After graduating in 1979, Bringhurst served a two-year Mormon mission to Honduras and Belize.

He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Brigham Young University in 1985 and a medical degree at Ohio State Medical School in 1989. He later was trained in oncology and hematology at Baylor's M.D. Andersen Cancer Center in Houston.

In July 1995, Bringhurst was invited by Dr. Nafees Nagy to become his partner in the Nevada Cancer Center, which has two local offices. Bringhurst also was medical director of oncology at Valley Hospital and medical director for the Option Care Hospice.

Bringhurst, who was board certified in internal medicine and oncology, performed bone marrow transplants that saved many local lives, Waid said, noting that when Bringhurst told people they had cancer, he "looked them in the eye and spoke in a calm, soothing voice. He gave them a lot of hope."

At a November 1997 Las Vegas roundtable discussion on the proposed $368 billion tobacco company federal settlement, Bringhurst expressed displeasure about a clause that would forbid a ban on nicotine for 12 years.

"Why wait for 12 years to phase out nicotine?" Bringhurst said at the meeting. "I don't think they (tobacco companies) should get a special grace (period)."

Bringhurst was a member of the Clark County Medical Society, the Nevada State Medical Society, the American Cancer Society and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

In addition to his parents, wife and children, Bringhurst is survived by a brother, Gary Bringhurst of Yorba Linda, Calif., and three sisters, Patti Olsen of Opelika, Ala., Sandi Suarez of Layton, Utah, and Dawn Waid of Las Vegas.

Donations:To the Bringhurst Children's Scholarship Trust, account No. 8020009752 at BankWest of Nevada. Call 451-0624 for donation information.

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