"I am the luckiest person in the world.  My job is fixing people.  As a former athlete, as well as current recreational weekend warrior and avid outdoor sportsperson, I understand how important it is to enjoy an active lifestyle.  Thomas Jefferson said, “A healthy mind needs a healthy body.”  The goal of orthopedic surgery is to return people to higher and better levels of function to allow them to enjoy an active and pain-free existence.   I get great joy returning patients to more engaged and happy lifestyles by decreasing and eliminating their pain.

 

                I grew up in Virginia and obtained my medical training at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.  While there, I helped take care of the University of Virginia Cavalier sports teams as well as seeing many patients with difficult and complex problems.  In 1996, I moved to Elkins, WV and founded Tygart Valley Orthopedics.  The small town environment of Elkins and the surrounding communities became an ideal place for my wife, Teri, and I to raise our three children, Ashlee, Lindsay, and Bailey.  The community hospital setting at Davis Medical Center allows me to perform complex, cutting edge surgery in a personal and friendly setting.  It has been extremely satisfying to have formed many friendships and relationships with patients and their families over my entire career here in central WV.

 

Although I still enjoy all aspects of orthopedic surgery, I have focused more of  my practice on hip and knee replacements. It is gratifying fixing an often debilitated person and returning them to a happier and active level by eliminating their pain with joint replacement.  I offer minimally invasive surgery, working through smaller incisions for improved cosmesis and quicker wound healing.  This allows patients to recover from their surgery in a faster, less painful, fashion.  Sports medicine procedures and arthroscopic shoulder reconstructions are other examples with less invasive options. Patients who present to my office with torn rotator cuffs are usually in a great deal of pain and with loss of function.  Once they have recovered from their all-arthroscopic repair surgery, it is rewarding to see the improvements in their pain and activity level.  At Tygart Valley Orthopedics, we form long-term relationships. We care for patients in their youth and follow them as they mature into young adults, working and living in the community. We take care of middle-aged recreational weekend warriors such as myself as they go through the aging process and need a periodic tune-up.  Finally, it has become my philosophy and primary goal as President and founding partner of Tygart Valley Orthopedics that patients always feel welcome.  We want you to leave as a friend, beginning a long term relationship as we take care of all your orthopedic needs."