Orthopedic Surgery

Abstract

Dr. U. is a tall, muscular young man with coal-black hair, gray-green eyes, and olive skin. He speaks with a slight accent, which I could not identify, and told me simply that he had grown up in a mining town in Pennsylvania and that his parents rarely spoke English in the home. He has outsized hands and feet. His movements are controlled and very economical. There doesn’t appear to be any wasted motion. On his wrist was a watch that would look enormous on mine. It bristled with buttons and an electronic calculator. A bush of dark hair stuck out from above the V neck of his scrub shirt. When he crossed his legs, I saw 12 inches of sockless calf ending in scruffy docksiders.