MOUNTAIN HOME — Earlier this spring, outdone by the passage of healthcare reform with so many unknowns, Terry Green, MD, decided to make a difference.

 

Green, an orthopedic surgeon from Mountain Home, became the only physician-candidate in Arkansas to make a bid this year for a seat in Congress.

 

“I want to be elected Congressman,” emphasized Green, who firmly believes in independent contracting with patients, whether Medicare or other insurance, and insists physicians should be allowed to accept assignment in cases of their choosing. “I can help the doctors across the United States as well as Arkansas.”

 

Green is also adamant about addressing tort reform.

 

“One cannot over-estimate the cost of procedures and studies done just to protect one’s self,” he said. “In my case, malpractice insurance takes the top $200 off each procedure’s receipts. There’s not enough profit left in carpal tunnels or trigger fingers to even want to do those procedures.”

 

Green has other ideas about the delivery of quality healthcare in America, learned at the feet of his dad, George Otis Green, a lawyer from Stuttgart, and his mom, Doris Gwendolyn Metcalf Green, a banker from DeWitt. The oldest of five children, Green grew up during a time when it wasn’t unusual that his first grade teacher, Mrs. Sinliski, spanked him with a board—with nails in it!

 

He learned early on to overcome adversity with grace. Despite being the smallest boy in DeWitt High School football, he lettered in the eleventh grade “thanks to Coach Dewey Hatton, because he lettered just about everybody,” recalled Green, who ran cross-country track during his first semester at the University of Arkansas and was admittedly left in the dust. “I learned that I would never make a living as an athlete.”

 

Green dreamed of a career as a pilot in the military. “When I was enlisted in the Marine Reserves, I fanaticized about being a jet pilot,” he said. “I thought I could go to college and get a commission and become a Marine Corps pilot. That never happened. I now fly my own Bonanza, and that’s the closest thing to Top Gun I will ever be.” 

 

Green’s fascination with the human body led to a career in medicine. “I always felt that I wanted to be a hero to people,” he said. “I saw my local family doctor (general practitioner) as a hero to the family and to many people in the community. I did try the general practitioner line of work for about three years prior to getting an orthopedic residency (but ultimately) sought an orthopedic residency because I like to work with my hands.” 

 

However, that decision led to one of Green’s greatest professional challenges.

 

“My boss, Dr. Carl Nelson, stayed on me for about a year and a half,” he recalled. “I thought I was going to be fired. I went to my pastor, Dr. W.O. Vaught, and asked him for wisdom and advice. He told me to go back to Dr. Nelson and ask him to write down things he would have me change. I also offered to be the best orthopedist resident I could. There was an instant change in our relationship. Everything went great the rest of the residency. At the end, Dr. Nelson told my wife (of 35 years, Beth Hodges of Yell County) that I was one of the best residents he had ever had.” 

 

Green settled in Mountain Home, working as a bone surgeon.

 

“I think I have the happiest patients by doing a muscle splitting posterior lateral approach to the spine, then most often a transforaminal decompression, insertion of fusion cage and then unilateral pedicle fixation,” he said. “This is accompanied by with lateral fusion mass. This surgery is done for spondylosis/stenosis of the lumbar spine (and) gives one a stable spine with very low risk to the dura, the least dissection and muscle damage.”

 

A father of four grown children, Green enjoys raising his own vegetables—tomatoes in particular; “our ground is so rocky that potatoes grow square,” he joked—and not surprisingly is an advocate of capitalism.

 

“We doctors should be allowed to build our own hospitals, our own shops—hospitals, clinics, surgery centers,” he said. “Efficiency demands it. Sure, some say doctors will have the incentive to do too much testing or too many surgical procedures. What’s the option? The option is to send their studies to someone else, usually a businessman who will profit. It doesn’t make sense for physicians to try to make profit for others rather than themselves. That’s not selfish or greedy; it’s just common sense.”