 Dr. Anthony McPherron of Plymouth, an orthopedic surgeon, became interested in medicine after he underwent knee surgery while in high school. |
Getting injured in sports led McPherron to become a doctor. He tore a ligament in his left knee when he was a senior on the 1985 Plymouth High School football team.
"I watched the surgical procedure on tape," he said, "and I thought 'that's cool,' I'd like to be able to do that."
"I had thought about being a doctor before," McPherron said. "Dr. Otis Bowen had delivered me and he was always my role model, as a physician and a politician, but I wasn't sure I wanted to go to school that long."
Fourteen years in all.
After undergraduate training at Indiana State University, graduating in 1990 with a degree in sports medicine, McPherron was accepted at six different medical schools. He chose Ohio University Medical School, Athens, Ohio, graduating in 1994 as a doctor of osteopathy.
While in Athens, he served as team doctor for all the varsity sports. He also worked with injured Indianapolis Colts and became interested in reconstructive surgery.
"I guess you could say I fell in love with joint replacement," he laughed.
For the next five years, following a year of internship, McPherron completed his residency at St. Vincent's Medical Center, Toledo, Ohio. In the top 10 percent of his class, he was chief resident for two years, won the Outstanding Clinical Student Award, was picked by the other residents as resident educator of 1999 and was inducted into Sigma Sigma Phi, a national honor society for medical students.
In addition to his medical training and internship, he dedicated an extra year for the study of arthritis and joint replacement at Florida's Orthopedic Institute in Tampa.
While there, he assisted with Evel Knievel's "umpteenth" hip replacement and was involved in many of the some 1,400 knee, hip and shoulder surgeries performed yearly at the Institute.
He has worked with professional football, hockey and basketball teams and with individual baseball players.
This fall he joined a group of local physicians as team doctors for Plymouth sports and volunteers his services for athletes at John Glenn, Culver, Culver Academies and Knox high schools.
"To avoid injuries," he said, "young athletes should realize that sports training means overall conditioning and flexibility. Football practice should start in April."
In July 2000, McPherron and his wife, Kris Hodges McPherron, his high school sweetheart and wife of 10 years, and their four children, Danielle, 8, Amanda, 6, Brennan, 3 and Casandra, 2, came home to Plymouth to live.
"My biggest reason to come back home is family." His parents, Larry and Nancy McPherron, and Kris' family are here.
"Secondly," he said, "I hope to follow in Doc Bowen's footsteps and serve in politics in some fashion."
McPherron spoke of Brian Dietz, former administrator of the Plymouth hospital.
"Brian had both hips replaced, traveling to Mooresville for the surgery. We talked about making the local hospital available for hip implants.
"With the aging baby boomer population, advanced hip replacement technology that promises to last longer than traditional hip implants, is of special interest to me."
Last week in Plymouth, McPherron helped Australian surgeon Ron Sekel perform a new hip replacement technique called "The Margron." It was only the 15th time the procedure was done in the United States.
McPherron said a second rare surgery will be performed in Plymouth this winter.
McPherron is scheduled as a presenter in February at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery and will lecture next summer at the American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedic Surgery.
By IDA CHIPMAN, Correspondent, South Bend Tribune, December 5, 2000