The following stories are excerpts from Moving Stories: 75 Years of Orthopaedics. The historical coffee table book portrays the history of orthopaedics with brilliant color photographs and vibrant stories.
When Paul Harrington, MD, presented his paper to his colleagues at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Chicago in 1958, the Harrington rodding procedure was met with astonishment and deep skepticism.
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During those darkened years of the Eastern Front, when German Panzers pounded their way into the heart of the Soviet Union, Jews of any means fled wherever possible—even into the wilds of Siberia.
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It was a warm afternoon in May 1993, and like dozens of other families in Mt. Zion, a suburb of Decatur, Illinois, the Courtney family was finishing up the yard work. Chad Courtney, then four years old, was playing in the yard with his parents.
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Hand surgery was nearly nonexistent prior to World War II. Although hands were by far the most commonly injured body part (and remain so today), trauma to the small bones of the hands presented technical and surgical challenges that were very difficult to overcome early in the 20th century.
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Donald Gajewski, MD, Director of Surgical Services in the Amputee Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, was stationed at the Combat Support Hospital in Balad, Iraq, in 2004 and at the Army Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany in 2005.
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Due to the omnipresent and disabling nature of arthritis of the hip socket, surgeons have been searching for more than a century to find a satisfactory solution to this debilitating and painful condition.
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When Olabisi Claudius-Cole, MD, now known affectionately as Dr. Bisi, was growing up in Sierra Leone, she always knew she wanted to carry on her father’s legacy. As a child, Olabisi would often spend time in the clinic watching him.
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In the early 1950s, Los Angeles’ Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center positioned itself as one of the country’s leading polio treatment facilities with the opening of its state-of-the-art respiratory center.
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Jeffrey Galpin, MD, the principal investigator who applied the first gene therapy for HIV/AIDS, was like any other athletic kid growing up in Chicago in the early 1950s. He knew, someday, he was going to play for the Chicago Cubs.
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“It was awful. You’re so embarrassed about going to the doctor as a child anyway, especially as a 10-year-old girl and you’d have to be naked in front of them,” recalls Carol Truncale of her scoliosis treatment back in the late 1940s in Chicago.
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It was the last game before the All-Star break in July 1974, and Dodgers pitcher Tommy John was on top of the mound—literally and figuratively. He was fulfilling practically every American male’s childhood dream: not only was the 31-year-old lefty from Terre Haute, Indiana, pitching in the majors, but he also held the best record in the National League, 13–3.
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There comes a time in everybody’s life when they’re faced with a choice: either step up to the plate and take a swing against all odds—go for the home run—or play it safe.
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Lewis G. Zirkle, MD, was working on his orthopaedic residency at Duke in 1968 when he got the call. A call that many American men had been dreading. A call to duty. He was drafted.
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Frederick A. Pottle, MD, was assigned to the 8th Evacuation Hospital stationed in France during the battles of Belleau Woods and Chateau-Thierry. The following is an excerpt from his autobiography, Stretchers.
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Samuel H. Fraerman, MD, served in North Africa with the 16th Evacuation Hospital. The 16th EVAC took part in the invasions of Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio and leapfrogged up the boot of Italy during the latter half of 1943 to early 1944.
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Moving Stories has been made possible by a grant from Zimmer.
