Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/599442
torrancememorial.org PULSE | 33 WHEN DOCTORS BECOME PATIENTS AFTER HIS OWN KNEE-REPLACEMENT SURGERY, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON JEROME H. UNATIN, MD, HAS BECOME EVEN MORE EMPATHETIC TO PATIENTS' NEEDS AND ANXIETY. WRITTEN BY LAURA ROE STEVENS | PHOTOGRAPHED BY MICHAEL NEVEUX ou may have heard that doctors make the worst patients. Whether that's true or not is up for debate. But does becoming a patient transform a physician into a better, more compassionate doctor? at's the real question—and one that has been examined over the years. Columbia University Medical Center psychiatrist Robert Klitzman, MD, explored this issue in his best-selling book When Doctors Become Patients. It's based on Dr. Klitzman's own time as a patient and interviews with more than 70 men and women who have experienced both sides of medicine—as doctors and patients. Dr. Klitzman discovered that when physicians get sick, they discover cracks in the health system they never noticed before. ings that may have been previously deemed unimportant in a patient's quality of care— such as a broken television in the waiting room, curt or rude receptionists, or long wait lines—have a big impact on patient stress. Even those doctors who considered themselves compassionate realized they could do better aer they experienced life as a patient. Jerome H. Unatin, MD, agrees wholeheartedly with Dr. Klitzman's findings. Dr. Unatin, an orthopedic surgeon who has been in private practice since 1971, became a patient in his own clinic this year. e physician, who has performed thousands of orthopedic surgeries during his career, found he needed a right knee replacement. An active biker, Dr. Unatin put off surgery for as long as possible, and then scheduled the procedure at his clinic, South Bay Orthopedic Specialists, where his partners, Nicholas J. Silvino, MD, and Don P. Sanders, MD, could perform the operation. "I couldn't go up and down stairs. I couldn't bike like I used to. It was time for me," he says. "But there is a gigantic difference between doing this operation and having it done to you. It was a humbling experience." e orthopedic surgeon has a chuckle and positive attitude that is contagious. His office is filled with memorabilia: model planes in recognition of his time as a flight surgeon in Vietnam and photos of his worldwide travels and his youth in Florida. It is clear his quest to learn more about the world and his community has never ceased. is curiosity served him well as a patient. "As the physician it is very difficult to truly appreciate what the patient goes through. Sometimes