Giants of orthopaedic surgery: Richard J. Smith MD.

Abstract

R ichard (Dick) J. Smith MD was a fine educator, author, and clinician who inspired many to enter the then-new subspecialty of hand surgery. One particular meeting I had with Dick was both auspicious and prophetic. ‘‘Do you want a cat?’’ Dick asked as I helped him suture a carpal tunnel operation. ‘‘Yes,’’ I replied, recalling that my tabby, Penelope, disappeared from my friend’s house while I was in Europe. ‘‘Well then, okay; but you’ll have to come to Scarsdale for an interview.’’ Thus did the feline avatar of Dick Smith (Fig. 1) enter my life. I was a second-year resident of orthopaedic surgery at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City where Dick was serving as Chief in the Division of Hand Surgery. I learned that Dick’s son, James, had become allergic to their cat Sam, so Sam needed a new home. My wife and I drove to Scarsdale, NY, USA for the interrogation. As soon as we stepped into the home and sat down on the couch, a lovely cat jumped on my lap and started purring. The three Smith children, Lisa, Tracey, and James, told me that Sam never did this for anyone before that moment. Needless to say, he was ours. Once Sam entered our home, it did not take me long to realize that celestial forces had somehow imbued this remarkable animal with many characteristics so evident in Dick. Based on my own recollections, and discussions with several of Dick’s colleagues, the similarities between Dick and his feline avatar began to pile up. Here follows some examples. Both Sam Smith-Green and Dick were exemplary representatives of their respective species. In Sam’s case, Felis catus domestica, Siamese BluePoint, and in Dick’s phylogeny, Homo Chirurgimanus, (The Hand Surgeon), a species whose evolutionary history Giants of Orthopaedics Published online: 10 February 2015 The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons1 2015