Orthopaedic surgeon recommendations

Dr's Nathan Breazeale and Doug Elenz swam for UT www.austinsportsmed.com/doctors.htm

Do you want to stay within a specific region, or are you willing to travel anywhere in the country?

Dr. Duc Nguygen in Redwood City, California. He did two shoulder surgeries on me (93 and 95) and I am still swimming. He used to be the sports doctor for the San Francisco 49ers. He's from Korea and uses unprecedented surgical methods (less cutting to tissue but longer surgical time). On another occasion, he also set both of my broken arms using sandbags to dislocate the nerves so he could set them without pain medication or anesthesia and I never felt it. He also did my knee replacement which is now over 15 years old and still in warranty! He has a website but I don't have it handy. Donna

Dr. Jo Hannafin...she has an office in Old Greenwich, CT and in NYC out of the hospital for special surgeries in NYC. She did both of my shoulder reconstructions in 04'--left shoulder in sept and right shoulder in october. I was back to full ROM within 2 weeks of each surgery and swam at ECAC's in December. I was rookie of the meet that year only 2.5 months after my second surgery. She is pretty amazing in my opinion. She was the Olympic Orthopedic in 2004 in Athens (might have been this time around too..not sure) She was also a competitive rower and her son is a college swimmer. She specializes in shoulders and knees and athletic injuries. you can email me for any more information about her or her contacts. morganbeth44@yahoo.com

We are willing to consider traveling anywhere in the country if needed.

Scott Gillogly. He does only shoulders and knees. He is in the Atlanta area and is the ortho to the Falcons and Thrashers. He did my knee surgery which had been having issues for 20 years at that point. Now, 8 years later, no problems. He has also done my sister's 2 knee surgeries (compartment syndrome) and my dad's torn quad tendon and his cleaning out of the shoulder. www.kneeguru.co.uk/.../contact.php

Duc M. Nguyen, MD Redwood City, Cal. Lifted AAOS Suspension On Nov. 21, 2007, the Medical Board of California granted a petition for penalty relief for early termination of probation of Dr. Nguyen’s medical license. In October 2004, the Medical Board of California placed Dr. Nguyen’s license to practice medicine on probation for 4 years. This action followed accusations of gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, excessive prescribing, and failure to maintain adequate medical records related to the care and treatment of two patients. Following surgery on two patients, Dr. Nguyen prescribed massive amounts of acetaminophen in narcotic medications. One patient died of a drug overdose; a second patient averaged more than 10 prescriptions per month from April 1999 to January 2003. In September 2006, the AAOS Board of Directors voted to suspend Dr. Nguyen until all probationary measures were lifted from his license. In addition, the Board voted to review Dr. Nguyen’s request to be re-instated. The AAOS Board of Directors voted to lift Dr. Nguyen’s suspension as an Active Fellow in the AAOS and approved Dr. Nguyen’s request to be reinstated. And I would use him again; his surgical techniques are unprecedented and I would want more information than what you wrote here. He never ever prescribed an excess of pain medication for me when I was his patient for multiple surgeries. His surgical techniques were so unique that there was very little pain to even start with. I agree we disagree about this fabulous doctor. But people can surely be leary if they want; I'm not. Drug overdose? I have to question that. Drugs were not his thing. Donna

Had surgery for a torn labrum in 05 -- long recovery for me, but that is not always the case. I think the Physical Therapist will be as important as the surgeon. Take a look at the Nick Brunelli blog on the raceclub forum - he details his surgery and recovery. He came back from it about as fast as I have seen anybody do it. What stroke is he / she swimming -- backstroke ?

From the NY Times article about Dara Torres, posted in another thread, that mentions her shoulder surgery: "Dr. Joseph Chalal, an orthopedic surgeon in Florida who performed the operation..."

Dr. Duc Nguygen in Redwood City, California...He used to be the sports doctor for the San Francisco 49ers. He's from Korea and uses unprecedented surgical methods (less cutting to tissue but longer surgical time). Duc M. Nguyen, MD Redwood City, Cal. Lifted AAOS Suspension On Nov. 21, 2007, the Medical Board of California granted a petition for penalty relief for early termination of probation of Dr. Nguyen’s medical license. In October 2004, the Medical Board of California placed Dr. Nguyen’s license to practice medicine on probation for 4 years. This action followed accusations of gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, excessive prescribing, and failure to maintain adequate medical records related to the care and treatment of two patients. Following surgery on two patients, Dr. Nguyen prescribed massive amounts of acetaminophen in narcotic medications. One patient died of a drug overdose; a second patient averaged more than 10 prescriptions per month from April 1999 to January 2003. In September 2006, the AAOS Board of Directors voted to suspend Dr. Nguyen until all probationary measures were lifted from his license. In addition, the Board voted to review Dr. Nguyen’s request to be re-instated. The AAOS Board of Directors voted to lift Dr. Nguyen’s suspension as an Active Fellow in the AAOS and approved Dr. Nguyen’s request to be reinstated.