John Eady, MD, FAAOS
Educator
Dwight D. Eisenhower Medical Center,
Orthopaedic Department at the Medical College of GA,
Orthopaedic Department of the Medical University of SC
Member Since: 1979
If you were mentoring a new member, what important advice would you give them as they progress in their career?
a. Make the patient, not anyone else, the center of your attention, efforts, and compassion.
b. Know more about why you are proposing a treatment plan than how you will do it but know both well. The patient and other family members will expect no less before they come in the door.
c. Learn more about an Orthopaedic condition than one text contains or is espoused by one expert. Find that knowledge in allied pathological, radiological, Internal Medicine and other texts by respected authors.
d. Never, never be reluctant to say, “I don’t know the answer to your question but will find out.” Then do exactly that. My most enduring memory of Dr. John Arthur Siegling and Dr. Wiliam F. Enneking, my two iconic mentors, remains the weekly conferences each conducted where we reviewed what we did that week that could be done better before we recounted what we did well.
What aspect of retirement surprised you the most?
The “drift” of emphasis with learning how to do Orthopaedics by our mentees rather than why it’s needed to know it. Partly driven by external forces, such as third-party payors who put a premium on measurable factors, it is also a shift in thinking of those entering Orthopaedics. As one aspiring candidate reflected toward the end of my teaching career, “Brick layers only need to know how to lay brick for a building, architects and engineers are responsible for design and code compliance. There’s only enough time during an Orthopaedic residency education to learn how to lay bricks. The design and engineering of the structure, i.e. the reason why, is what a fellowship does.” Dr. Enneking would take great joy in ripping that premise so far apart it would be unrecognizable, despite its kernel of validity.
What hobbies do you enjoy in your spare time?
Growing up in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, I learned how to fish and harvest crab almost before I could walk. So, I still do those pursuits when my joints and strength allow but throwing a cast net is a distant memory. I help coach my grandson’s baseball team (city champs 2 years in a row) as I remain able to relate how to think about the game and still possess a first baseman’s instincts. I also take him to his swimming practices/competition, as well as his basketball events. As a former Wild Weasel F-4 Flight Surgeon who actually flew in the aircraft, I recently hosted our reunion before too many of us “flew west.” Lastly, I am finishing a book about the patriotism of those SAM Killers in an era when their service was reviled.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself that not many people know.
Before telling you about a fun fact, it’s pertinent to relate my entry into Orthopaedics began four years later than most. After flying as a Flight Surgeon in a Wild Weasel (SAM Killer) squadron with over 500 hours flying time, I entered Orthopaedic residency under the tutelage of Dr. John Arthur Siegling four years after completing Internship. Along with other like-minded leaders of Orthopaedic programs at the time, such as Dr. J. Leonard Goldner (Duke), who served in the Navy before beginning his Orthopaedic education, and Dr. William F. Enneking (U. of Fla), who respected the sacrifices servicemen in his generation made, Dr. Siegling believed that an interval of military service prior to applying for an Orthopaedic residency was not an absolute criterion for elimination from competition for the position. Rejecting the misconception that time away from academic pursuits with military or any other noneducational service presented an unsurmountable obstacle for success, they replaced it with the principle of investigating how an applicant performed during that interval. As a result, Dr. Garron G. Weiker (Duke) and I (MUSC) were chosen for an Orthopaedic education. Following Dr. Siegling’s and Enneking’s examples after successfully completing residency and fellowship, I helped select and educate the first American of African heritage to be educated in the US Air Force’s only Orthopaedic residency program in the 1980’s. That graduate went on to become a chairman as well as President of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. During the same interval I helped select and educate that program’s first woman. After joining the Orthopaedic Residency program at the University of South Carolina’s School of Medicine’s Orthopaedic Residency program in the 1990’s I helped select and educate five women and the first American of African heritage by that institution, in an era prior to it becoming a moral imperative for our profession.
Before time and nature prohibited it, I played soccer once a week with gents my age. Now, I watch Wrexham games on TV, swear like the proverbial sailor when they lose and cheer so loudly when they win, my wife of 62 years threatens divorce. However, the most joy I get is seeing the light come on in my grandson and his teammates when I help them understand why they need to perform a certain play in baseball. The pride is overwhelming when they make the play with the improved skill and look at me to be sure I saw it.