Page 23 - Bexar County Medical Society Purchasing Directory

BCMS HONOREES

anymore so I retired from medical writing time Service Award.
and began pursuing other topics.” Ten years ago, Green joined the board of
Green’s love of history led him to write SAMMinistries, a non-profit that helps fam-
several history novels on World War II in- ilies facing homelessness, and was inspired
cluding “Hitler’s Money Trail: How he ac- by a woman he met on the board who had
quired it, How he squandered it”; been abandoned by her husband, left
“Rudolph Hess’ Mission: The Flight That homeless but was still able to overcome
Might Have Changed History”; and these obstacles and put herself through law
“Plague in the Pacific: How Japan’s Unit school. Green decided to launch the Help-
731 Might Have Won the War”. ing Hands Fund which raises money to help
but his best-selling book was one he people like the woman he had met to go
just did on a lark by researching the ori- back to school. The entity has so far raised
gins of the names of streets and places more than $300,000 and works closely with
around San Antonio called “Place Names SAMMinistries.
of San Antonio”. His latest book is a col- Green has seen many advancements in
lection of mini-bios about people who medicine over the years, but one that he is
lost a presidential election, ranging from most excited about is micro-vascular sur-
Wendell Willkie in 1940 to Hillary Clinton gery that makes it possible to restore blood
in 2016. All of these books can be found supply to severed limbs and other trans-
on his author page on Amazon.com. planted tissues. Green is optimistic about
Green calls writing his therapy and he the future because of the people he sees
is tickled when he is invited to speak on going into medicine every year.
topics other than hand surgery. but, of “Every generation is smarter than the
course, hand surgery is still what he is best one before because they start out at a higher
known for and he has received many hon- level,” he says. While dr. Green has been
ors and recognitions over the years. In responsible for training well over 100 hand
1997, he was named the distinguished surgeons during the past 30 years, he does
Alumnus of his own residency training not like to take credit for their success.
program, The New York Orthopaedic “I think the role of a teacher is to provide
Hospital. He was also named the 2016 a proper environment and point them in
distinguished Alumnus of his alma mater, the right direction,” he says. “That is maybe
baylor College of Medicine. In 2019, the 5 or 10 percent while the rest is their hard
bexar County Medical Society honored work. So that is why I think it is arrogant
him with their Golden Aesculapius life- for me to say that I trained so-and-so.”
visit us at www.bcms.org 23