By: By Joseph Kutz, MD
We all know that Doctor Kleinert began his practice in Louisville over a beer at a hotel in Chicago.
My arrival in Louisville came about because of my procrastination of sending in my application for surgery residency with Doctor Charles Johnson at Wayne State University. He was kind enough to call me and suggest that I contact Doctor Rudolf Noer who had a residency position open in Louisville. Mary Jane and I came in for an interview and we were accepted.
Upon finishing my general surgery residency in 1963, Doctor Noer asked me to consider being his first cardiovascular Fellow. However, he said he had no funds. So, he was not sure he could pay me. Having just finished four years of working for $50.00 - $250.00 per month, it was going to be difficult to accept the position. As luck would have it, Doctor Kleinert asked me to be his first year Fellow in Hand Surgery, and he would pay me $1,000.00 per month. I am happy to say that I took the position for the year 1963-1964.
Towards the end of my Fellowship, we made plans to go into practice in Lexington. However, Mr. Bottigheimer had a dinner for Doctor Kleinert and myself, after which Doctor Kleinert asked me to say with him, despite the fact that I did not like to write papers!
The practice's office was in the Heyburn Building. The first employees were Libby Curtsinger, Phyllis Morgan, Marilyn Seebart, and Dorothy Miller, who typed at home. In Fall 1964, Mary Redmon (Libby's sister), Rose Jacobus (bookkeeper), and Liz Ellington (RN) were hired. In the winter of 1964/1965, Sharon Wright was hired as an insurance clerk. It was Mr. Bottigheimer's idea to hire Rose, his former bookkeeper. Mr. Bottigheimer felt we needed her because Jewish Hospital was not able to collect for the care of our patients as we were behind in sending out our insurance claims. It appears we are still in the condition today!
Our practice and Fellowship continued to grow. Some of our early Fellows were John Ashworth and Frank Cook in 1962, myself and Bryant Bloss in 1963, Richard Gooding and Ronald Rodman in 1964, Walter Badenhausen and George Volan in 1964, and Doctor Ioakimidis in 1968.
During the early years, we would travel from hospital to hospital to take care of patients. The insurance companies felt the patients had to be admitted before we could get paid.
To keep track of all of the patients, the "Brain" was developed by the suggestion of Jack Gresham, a Fellow who was flying his own plane from Florida to Louisville to start his Fellowship in July 1966. He crashed in Georgia. Thankfully, he was not seriously injured. When he arrived in August, he said he needed a list to be sure he did not forget anyone in the hospitals. The list would serve as his "brain". It has been called that ever since.
The many miles going between hospitals continued until Jewish Hospital opened up the operating room for scheduling blocks on Saturdays. They only had five operating rooms. Doctor Kleinert, Doctor Atasoy, and I would occupy three of them. Doctor Norton Waterman suggested that the hospital should think about allowing hand cases to be performed with two patients in the room at the same time. This apparently was being done by Doctor Brown, a plastic surgeon in St. Louis. The hospital decided to build two more operating rooms large enough for two beds. This was to appease the other surgeons. However, it did not work that way because Doctor Kleinert, Doctor Atasoy, and I scheduled two beds in these rooms any time we could.
One weekend when Doctor Kleinert was away on Guard duty, we had thirty (30) emergencies in the hospitals. After finishing surgery, it took me from 12 noon to 10 am the next day to round on all of the patients. From that weekend on, I started moving patients from the second and third called hospitals to the hospital I was working at.
When Doctor Kleinert reviewed the brain, he asked me why I did not have patients in more hospitals. After telling him what I was doing, he said, "You can't do that! If you do, the other hospitals will not call any more!" It took about two months for him to start doing this himself. Thus, we started using Jewish Hospital as the primary hospital chiefly because of the double bed operating rooms.
Doctor Atasoy, after going back to Turkey following his surgery residency, returned for a year Fellowship and stayed on as an associate in 1967.
Doctor Graham Lister joined our practice in 1974. His family arrived the day of the 1974 tornado.
Doctor Wolff undertook his Fellowship in 1975, after which he joined the practice.
I met Doctor Tsai in Japan where he presented a paper on thumb replantation that he performed twice on the same patient. He cut off his thumb the same way twice! Doctor Tsai came to Louisville to visit in 1975, served a year Fellowship, and did his Orthopaedic Residency again in order to become board certified. He joined our practice in 1981.
Since then we have added additional partners: Doctor Luis Scheker in 1983, Doctor Warren Breidenbach in 1987, Doctor Tom Harter in 1997, Doctor Margaret Napolitano in 2002, Doctor Tuna Ozyurekoglu in 2003, Doctors Rodrigo Moreno and Doctor Huey Tien in 2004, and Doctors Sunil Thirkannad and Michelle Palazzo in 2006.
In looking back, we always ask where time has gone. Over the years since 1963, many changes have occurred. Many advancements in hand surgery have taken place, some of which this practice had a little to do with. To think that this practice started from two men and a handshake is a wonder and a blessing to me!