ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY

helicopter to Birmingham and she made it through. I got to see her for her six-month checkup, and she established me as her primary doctor. She’s been my patient ever since.”

When he’s not working at the clinic or hanging out with family in Pell City, he can be found on his bulldozer or tractor or hunting on his land in Lowndes County in South Alabama. “It’s where I go to destress. It’s definitely in the country,” Helms says. “You have to drive 17 miles for a bag of ice!”

Rea sums up Helms’ success as a combination of personality and commitment to both community and patient care. “He could have gone anywhere to practice medicine and probably had an easier path than the one he chose. But at his core is that commitment to community.” Pell City has benefited from that commitment to expanding the medical options locally.

Helms says his second-choice career was meteorology. Fortunately for the St. Clair County area, his first choice seems to be working out just fine.