Doctor defends Beede’s surgery
Surgeon says it’s essential, isn’t taking resources
The Giants and pitcher Tyler Beede were scrutinized and criticized last week when the 26yearold pitcher underwent Tommy John surgery to repair his elbow at a time when most elective procedures are being postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the nation’s highestprofile sports orthopedists defended that and other Tommy John surgeries in an interview with The Chronicle on Tuesday.
“People need to be a little more thoughtful how they judge Tyler Beede or the Giants for trying to take care of him,” Dr. Neal ElAttrache said by phone from Los Angeles, where he is based.
ElAttrache is the head physician for the Dodgers and the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, and he consults with many other teams, and athletes who require
Tommy John surgery and other orthopedic procedures. Beede visited ElAttrache for a second opinion before choosing Dr. Keith Meister to perform the procedure in Texas.
ElAttrache belongs to the KerlanJobe Institute, which was founded by Dr. Frank Jobe, who performed the first of what became an eponymous operation on Dodgers pitcher Tommy John in 1974.
Although many other surgeries can be postponed with no occupational repercussions, Tommy John surgery is unique because recovery takes at least one year and often as long as 18 months.
Beede will miss the 2020 season, however many games that covers, but he should be healthy enough for most or all of 2021. If Beede or any other pitcher had to wait until June or July to have his ulnar collateral ligament rebuilt, he would miss most or all of 2021 as well.
“I know that I’m going to get criticized for taking care of these kinds of guys, but it’s essential to their livelihoods,” ElAttrache said. “If you have somebody’s career at stake and they lose two seasons instead of one, I would say that is not a nonessential or unimportant elective procedure.”
Still, the KerlanJobe Institute has trimmed its Tommy John surgeries by 90%, ElAttrache estimated. Doctors are submitting all potential surgeries to an internal panel for approval to ensure that only the most timesensitive operations proceed.
“We’re trying to select players so we don’t overtax the system,” ElAttrache said. “We have to have some criteria. We don’t want it to be arbitrary. We want the public to trust what we’re doing. If we didn’t have some criteria for selecting patients, we easily could be accused of bias for nonmedical reasons and lose the public trust.”
The public already believes that the wealthy, powerful and famous are being moved to the head of the line for testing and medical care. That was one basis of criticism toward Beede and Boston pitcher Chris Sale — as well as Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard on Tuesday — when they announced their Tommy John surgeries.
ElAttrache’s response: “I don’t know any conscientious medical professional who looks at patients and makes judgments based on socioeconomic factors. Whether it’s a kid losing a scholarship, or a man who has to work (his arms) overhead because he has his own airconditioning business, or a player making money on a good contract, if somebody’s livelihood is at stake, I’m blind to the name of the companies they work for.”
These surgeries are performed at private clinics, not hospitals that care for coronavirus patients. Opponents make a plausible argument that equipment used in the surgeries, such as masks and ventilators, should be diverted to facilities that cure the seriously ill.
ElAttrache said his institute talks to hospitals daily, and in turn, they all converse with public health officials. If KerlanJobe needs to eliminate orthopedic surgeries for the public good, he said, it will.
Until then, the institute is obligated to cure patients who need orthopedic surgery, ElAttrache said.
“We’re not in the business of saying ‘Wake me up when this is all over.’ ”