Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Special Outpatient Surgery Edition - Orthopedics - August 2019

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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better people. Why has your program inspired so many people? There are many reasons. One Christmas Eve, my chief resident and his father and brother, who were both orthopedic surgeons visiting from Germany, teamed up to fix a dog with a crushed pelvis. I called the resi- dent the next day and told him to buy his family lunch on me as a way of thanking them for their help. He politely declined, telling me the sur- gery was a gift to them. He said his father, who was the most stoic man he knew, had teared up when they were heading home after the opera- tion. I have an idea why. During the procedure, the father had looked over at me and said it was his only chance to operate with his two sons. Can you apply the lessons learned during the animal operations to performing surgery on humans? Absolutely. Fixing animals involves creative, improvisational problem solving. We repair fractures without the use of a C-arm, making do with K-wires, Steinmann pins and sterilized locking plates I've removed from human patients. It's incredible fun and reminds us sur- geons that we can think and operate at the same time. What's next for you and your mission? Physicians and facilities from across the nation are contacting me to find out how to launch and run similar programs. That's incredibly heartening. I'm going to run out of gas at some point, and don't want efforts to help injured and unwanted pets to end with me. OSM Dr. Keating (surgeonforstrays@gmail.com) is an orthopedic surgeon at WellStar Atlanta (Ga.) Medical Center and founder of Surgeons for Strays (surgeonsforstrays.com). 7 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A U G U S T 2 0 1 9

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