A 2001 graduate of R-S Central High School and native of Polk County has returned to Western North

Carolina to join the medical staff of Rutherford Regional Health System.
Dr. Kenneth Sauve, anesthesiologist, began seeing patients last summer.
“I grew up in Polk County and graduated from R-S Central,” Sauve said.
Sauve said returning to the foothills had been a goal of his since he began medical school.
“I wanted to stay in North Carolina,” he said. “My parents are here, and I love this area. It’s good to be back here.”
When he first went away to college, practicing medicine wasn’t necessarily his goal, Sauve said.
“I just always liked science,” he said.
While a student, he served as a volunteer emergency medical technician with Polk County First Responders.
“It was a really good way for me to see if medicine was my interest,” he said.
Sauve, who pronounces his name suh-vay, received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his doctor of medicine degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He completed an internship in preliminary general surgery at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C. and his residency in anesthesiology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. He is a resident member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the International Anesthesia Research Society and the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine.
Sauve is the son of Ken and Teresa Sauve of Columbus.
He said returning to Western North Carolina will allow him to take part in some of his favorite activities outside of the medical center.
“I am planning to go fishing and hunting,” he said. “I really like the outdoors.”
Sauve joins Dr. Scott Kirkpatrick and Dr. Maggie Bell as Rutherford Regional’s third anesthesiologist.
– article submitted by Allison Flynn