D
r. Gordon Tobin became a surgeon because he was attracted to the
challenges of intervening in major illness and injury, addressing
acute needs to alleviate pain and suffering. After attending the
University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco and
during surgical residency at the University of Arizona, the Idaho
native found his calling in the reconstructive possibilities of plastic surgery.
In 1978, Tobin came to the University of Louisville where he established
himself as a triple threat: skilled clinician, teacher and researcher. As a re-
searcher he developed innovative approaches to problems arising from sur-
geries to treat cancer and heart disease, and from critical injuries like burns.
Louisville cardiac surgeon Dr. Laman Gray has known Dr. Tobin for more
than 30 years and says, “He really led the improvements,” pioneering tech-
niques to treat the devastating infections that sometimes followed early open
heart surgeries. An avid medical historian as well, Tobin has a comprehensive
understanding of what’s been done in the past, Gray notes, making it possible
for him to “change the future.”
Dr. Tobin explains that a breakthrough early in his career made it possible
to more effectively swap damaged with healthy tissue. The transplantation of
skin and tissue, on which much of reconstructive surgery is based, is more
successful when tissues are moved along with attached muscle and accom-
panying blood supply, known as a flap. That was a game-changer for cancer
patients with tissue-damaging radiation or large internal areas prone to in-
fection following organ removal. In the case of open heart surgeries, where
patients sometimes had to remain in the hospital for months of antibiotic
treatment, the flap reconstruction as devised by Dr. Tobin allowed more
complete removal of infection and a dramatic reduction in recovery time
and post-surgical fatalities.
FEATURE
DR. GORDON
TOBIN
Ephraim
McDowell
Physician of the
Year
The use of surgical flaps in reconstruction also had implications for treat-
ment of burn injuries. Dr. Tobin recognized that such surgeries “could be
done with conventional tools that could be taken anywhere in the world,”
prompting him to co-found the Vietnam Burn Care Mission in 1991. He
led teams on multiple medical and t eaching visits there over the course of a
decade, significantly improving burn survival for adults and children.
Norton Cancer Institute gynecologic oncologist Dr. Lynn Parker lauds
Tobin’s innovative work in pelvic and vaginal reconstruction which now
provides patients “improved quality of life and a chance of cure and sur-
vival.” Tobin, who was involved in the research that led to the nation’s first
successful hand transplant at Jewish Hospital in 1999, also continues to be
deeply involved in refining transplantation techniques, including for facial
transplants. Louisville cardiologist and former Ephraim McDowell award
winner Dr. Morris Weiss sums up his longtime friend and associate as “a
quintessential physician for the 21 st century.”
Dr. Tobin’s dedication to making a difference in the lives of patients here
and abroad doesn’t stop at the operating room door. He’s also a past president
of the Greater Louisville Medical Society and Kentucky Medical Association,
where he still serves on the KMA Foundation board.
Dr. Tobin says he’s concerned about “the dynamics of health care and try-
ing to get it to everybody in a complex political environment.” He believes
it’s important to start with “basic humanitarian and economically sound
views, and then work toward policy” – in other words, as in reconstructive
surgery, addressing acute needs while also improving the overall approach
to the problem.
OCTOBER 2017
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