Sacred encounter: deacon-surgeon sees his call to service more deeply after operating on priest

In the few short months since his ordination to the permanent diaconate on June 1, Deacon Tim Kostamo has done it all – weddings, funerals, and everything in between. But he recently went far beyond the deacon’s call of duty when the orthopedic surgeon found himself performing surgery on Our Lady of the Assumption pastor Father James Hughes after the Port Coquitlam priest ruptured his Achilles tendon.  

Father Hughes recounted how the injury happened, with his getting a bit carried away during a basketball game with some young parishioners.

“In my pride and hubris, I decided to show these students what Michael Jordan used to look like,” Father Hughes told The B.C. Catholic. 

He jumped, and when his feet hit the ground, he felt a tear and knew something was wrong. 

As fate would have it, his doctor recommended Dr. Tim Kostamo, of Christ the Redeemer in West Vancouver and a recent addition to the growing ranks of Vancouver’s permanent deacons.

Father Hughes remembered joking with Deacon Kostamo just before the operation, warning him, “You’d better do a good job, because if you’re ever assigned [as a deacon] to my parish, I’ll remember!” 

Thankfully, there will be no need for that. The surgery went well, and Father Hughes is recovering apace. At the time of writing, he is walking without assistance. 

For his part, Deacon Kostamo, who has 23 years’ experience as a surgeon, described the experience of operating on a priest, or any of his patients since his ordination, as more profound now.

“It’s a completely different spiritual avenue. I can feel it in my practice – like how I listen to people,” he said. “I can feel it will be a big part of my life.” 

While his vocation has given him a deeper sense of purpose within his profession, something else happened during Father Hughes’ surgery that emphasized the deacon’s role as a helper of priests. 

“I was cradling him” on the operating table, said Deacon Kostamo. 

Because the Achilles rupture surgery is performed with the patient face-down, at some point Father Hughes needed to be rolled onto his back again. Deacon Kostamo found himself cradling an unconscious Father Hughes like a small child. 

Holding the priest in his arms brought home for him the essence of his vocation, as well as the need to care for priests. “It hammered it home for me,” he said. “What struck me was I felt the care more deeply.” 

Although he’s still freshly ordained, his experience with Father Hughes in the operating room helped him feel more strongly the deacon’s vocation of service.

Considering the constant demands of the parish, “These priests have incredibly tough jobs. I just think how rarely we treat them with tenderness,” he said. 

“We need to cradle our priests more.”

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