Page 22 - Bexar County Medical Society Purchasing Directory

BCMS HONOREES

bCMS Honorees

David P. Green, MD

Hand Surgeon to the World By Mike W. Thomas

before he became a world-renowned In 1977, Green came to another cross-
hand surgeon, dr. david P. Green, 82, roads in his career when he was offered the
spent time as a medic at March Air Force opportunity to become the chair of ortho-
base in Riverside, Calif., treating wounded pedics at UT Southwestern Medical Center
soldiers returning from the vietnam War. in dallas. “It was a big decision,” Green re-
It was there that his interests first turned calls, “I had to decide whether I wanted to
towards hand surgery because he saw so be in academics my whole career or if I
many veterans coming home with grievous wanted to be a hand surgeon.”
hand injuries. The next year, Green left the medical
“We were getting all these hand cases center and became the first surgeon in San
from vietnam and I didn’t think we knew Antonio to devote his practice entirely to
enough about how to treat them,” Green hand and upper extremity surgery. before
said. So, at the first opportunity he went long he was joined by other doctors and
back to school at Columbia Presbyterian became a founder of the San Antonio
Medical Center in New York to study or- Hand Center. Over the years he has served
thopedics. as the hand surgery consultant for the San
After his graduation, Green was pre- Antonio Spurs and has treated numerous
sented with an opportunity to get in on the professional athletes including members of
ground floor at the new department of the dallas Cowboys, world class gymnasts,
Orthopedics at the Medical School in San professional rodeo cowboys, and golfers
Antonio. A native Texan who grew up in on the PGA tour.
El Paso and graduated from baylor College Green wrote another textbook in 1980
of Medicine, Green was more than happy called “Operative Hand Surgery,” which
to return to his home state. For the next went on to become one of the definitive
eight years he served as the coordinator of textbooks on hand surgery. It was pub-
resident training and then chief of the lished by a british company with American
hand surgery service. subsidiaries and Green was surprised to
While at the medical school, Green met learn that it became very popular all around
dr. Charles A. Rockwood, one of the the world. The book is now in its 7th edi-
school’s first faculty members and chair of tion and has afforded him the opportunity
the department of Orthopedics. Together, to travel all over the world. but after a
Green and Rockwood co-authored a two- while, Green said he tired of writing only
volume textbook on fractures that is now about medicine. “I was constantly writing
in its 8th edition. Today the textbook is and editing my books,” Green said. “As
considered a standard reference on the soon as I would finish updating one book
subject and is used in orthopedic residency it would be time to update the other one.
training throughout the country. by the fifth edition, I decided it wasn’t fun

22 San Antonio Medicine • April 2019