Credit for save goes to Dr. Graham

Brewers rookie gets helping hand from LVHN surgeon

As the Phillies play the Brewers in Milwaukee this weekend, area fans might get a chance to see Sal Frelick play for the first time for the National League Central leaders.

Frelick, a product of Lexington High School in Massachusetts and an all-ACC selection at Boston College, has been a fast riser through the Brewers system after being Milwaukee’s first-round pick in 2021.

However, his rise to the big leagues was impeded when he suffered a torn ligament in his left thumb while playing at Triple-A Nashville early in the season.

Frelick, and his agent, John Courtright, sought the nation’s most experienced hand surgeon in terms of working with professional athletes.

That brought Frelick to the Lehigh Valley to see Dr. Thomas Graham, the physicianin-chief of the Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute. Graham performed the surgery to repair the ligament and within seven weeks Frelick was back on the field, playing first for Nashville where he hit a home run and drove in four runs in just his third game back on June 17.

He then got the call to join the Brewers on July 22 and had three hits, several quality defensive plays and drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in his debut. In 31 games and 93 at-bats entering Friday’s game, Frelick is hitting .247 with 12 hits and 19 walks, but he has energized Milwaukee with his speed. He stole three bases in a game against the Dodgers on Aug. 17.

Frelick is one of the latest of more than 2,500 professional athletes who have been boosted by Dr. Graham in their return to the playing field through his expertise in hand and wrist injuries.

Since his arrival at the Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute in April, Graham has treated more than 60 pro athletes.

“Dr. Graham and the entire Orthopedic Institute took exceptional care of me,” Frelick said in a release. “From the diagnosis to the procedure to the follow up, I could not have asked for anything more. I was able to return to play at the highest level in many ways due to the concern and care delivered in Lehigh Valley.”

Graham has worked with a variety of teams in a variety of sports and always finds it gratifying to help athletes get back to what they have long dreamed of doing and have worked extremely hard to do.

“I couldn’t be more humbled that elite athletes like Sal Frelick continue to choose our program at their time of greatest need, when their livelihood is endangered,” Graham said. “It is particularly gratifying that we have learned so much from the unique ‘laboratory’ of treating professional athletes that we have translated into our everyday practice of hand surgery, so all of our patients benefit from the same level of care that the pro athletes receive.”

Graham said he has been a team doctor or medical director for teams in every major sport — the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and the PGA Tour and the LPGA. Some of the people he has cared for include Shaquille O’Neal, Russell Wilson, Bryce Harper and golfer Bryson DeChambeau.

Frelick happened to be one of the first he treated since coming to the Lehigh Valley.

“This kid comes here with his career being threatened after he took a rocket ride through the Brewers organization,” Graham said. “He was sent here by one of baseball’s super agents. He called me up and asked if I’d take care of him after he blew out his thumb. They flew him in here and we took care of everything else from the lodging to the transportation to the interaction with the team. It gets a ton of ink in Milwaukee, but I want this region to get the credit.

“He had an unbelievable call-up to the big leagues and I thought it was kind of fitting because our care at Lehigh Valley is getting a call-up to the big leagues. People are coming from all over the nation to us. We just got ranked as one of the best programs in the country by US News and World Report. I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years and I’ve been very fortunate that they get sent here.”

But Graham emphasized that it’s not about him.

“These people are choosing to come here,” he said. “And I always said the center of medical universe where the patient and the doctor get together is Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic is located, a place with a population of 140,000. I always said if they can do it there, we can sure as heck do it here. And we are doing it.”

Graham said the only people in the world who need 100th percentile outcome are professional athletes.

“If you throw a baseball at 96 miles an hour, you can go to Cooperstown,” he said. “If you throw it at 86 miles an hour, you’re going to end up being a teacher or a lawyer or something. I just want to highlight the fact that we have a great medical community. This is nothing against any other medical organization that’s here. It’s just the opposite. About 20 or 25% of people are leaving here for their medical care and they don’t need to do that. We have great care here and not just in my specialty, but overall.”

Does Graham become a fan of the athletes he treats?

“We appreciate it when send to our office jerseys and other stuff, and I am incredibly humbled that they choose me and they’re flying over a lot of good doctors to get here, including their own team doctors,” he said. “I am a team doctor myself for the Cleveland Guardians and the New Jersey Devils so I know what it’s like to be in a clubhouse or locker room. So the athletes and their families and their agents have trust in me. But you always remember that they’re people first and foremost. They’re my patient and if they’re playing for this team or that team, that’s just what they do for a living.

“That’s how I approach it and we always take it short term, medium term and long term. Short team is the season, medium term is your career and long term is playing with your grandkids. We need to make good decisions for all of that and that’s why we’ve earned that trust.”

Graham, who is from western Pennsylvania, said he also understands the teamwork, the pride, the dedication and communication it takes to be part of a championship organization and he believes he is working for one at Lehigh Valley, a team with more than 1,000 caregivers and 200 clinicians.

“My 30 years in professional sports have taught me what it takes to become a championship organization. I came to Lehigh Valley Health Network because it exhibits those characteristics,” he said. “We’re dedicated to combining knowledge and experience with collaboration and compassion.”