Educating, recommending, executing
Dr. Bushnell’s philosophy of medicine is well illustrated by his relationship with one of his patients, Dutch (Gregory) Masters. Then in his 50s, Masters first came to Harbin Clinic Orthopedics & Sports Medicine with shoulder problems: the left shoulder suffered from basketball wear and tear, and the right shoulder had an old football injury (from flag football, no less). Masters, then still an airlines pilot, says he was impressed that Dr. Bushnell did not use surgery as his immediate default solution.
As Masters puts it: “He said, ‘Here’s what we can fix, but here’s the downside to surgery…it might help you play basketball, but it may make pulling the yoke on the aircraft more difficult on takeoff.’” After weighing their options, they finally agreed on foregoing surgery and pursuing physical therapy instead, about which Masters says, “That worked out great!”
Eventually, playing basketball caused a tear of Masters’ meniscus (cartilage in the knee joint). Again, Dr. Bushnell gave him options: “We can do surgery, but let’s try steroid shots first, and if that doesn’t work, we can do surgery later.”
Masters says, “After only two injections, I was running up and down the basketball court virtually pain free for years…until I completely wrecked my ‘good’ knee.”