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World class orthopedist at NRMC
His name is Dr. James St. Ville. And yes, he really is a world-class orthopedic surgeon with a focus on knees and hips.
“Once Missouri grants me a medical license I will start seeing patients and performing operations here at Nevada Regional Medical Center,” said St. Ville in an interview at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.
But that immediately raises two questions. First, this is an orthopedic surgeon who has replaced the knees and hips of scores of professional football and baseball players as well as worked to create new artificial joints and surgical techniques. He could work anywhere in the world, so why is he coming here?
And second, is this just a temporary stop until he finds something better or does he plan to live, work and stay in Nevada?
Before the interview got around to those questions, St. Ville provided some personal and professional background.
Born in 1956 in Newton, Mass., near Boston, while St. Ville’s father was a resident in cardiac surgery. St. Ville spent his early years growing up in Chicago and graduated from high school in Tulsa.
The senior doctor St. Ville’s claim to fame was his contributions in helping to develop the cooling system for the heart prior to the invention of the heart-lung bypass machine. This system provided surgeons further time to work and respond to any problems. He also developed the two team approach to heart transplantation which allowed multiple things to be addressed simultaneously.
The senior Dr. St. Ville went on to train Dr. Christian Barnard, the South African surgeon who performed the first successful human heart transplant in 1967. He also trained American pioneers such as Drs. Norman Shumway, Denton Cooley and Michael DeBakey.
From high school through medical school, Dr. James St. Ville spent his summers working on mahogany race boats, mastering the use of power tools and precision work.
When asked why he chose to work on knees and hips instead of hearts St. Ville answered, “I prefer carpentry over plumbing. From the first time I worked in orthopedics, the tools felt like miniature versions of what I had been using on those boats. It felt natural.”
After finishing an all-state running back in high school, he graduated from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, where he switched to rugby, got his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma and did his surgical residency at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore.
At Hopkins, St. Ville embraced that school’s emphasis on service.
“I operated on a lot of folks who couldn’t pay. That’s also when I learned how many of those patients can be more grateful than those who can pay. That feeling is why I went into medicine.”
In 1989, he moved from Baltimore to Phoenix.
For a surgeon specializing in joint replacements, a city with a large retiree population is a pretty good place to be.
However, it was an altogether different retired population which would provide a special purpose and add a great deal of joy to St. Ville’s work
It began with a patient named Ron Gardin, a former defensive back for the Baltimore Colts. Living in Arizona, he visited St. Ville in 1991 for a sore elbow.
At the time, Gardin was active in the local chapter of the National Football League Players Association. He informed the doctor that, like himself, there were many retired players — some 400 in the Phoenix area — who lacked health insurance or were denied coverage due to the damage done during their football years.
In those days, joint-replacement coverage ran between $30,000 and $40,000 per year. In the days before mega-salaries and the higher minimum salaries of today, most players had little choice but to endure the pain and problems as best they could.
Said St. Ville, “The day after they hung up their cleats they had to find another line of work. But player after player walked into my office — or tried to — with mobility issues and pain levels which made most jobs agony to perform.”
With his heart leading and his organizational skills not far behind, St. Ville recruited a team of specialists and convinced medical-supply companies to donate everything from gowns, gloves and medications to the titanium and plastic implants themselves.
“We still lacked one thing and so I scheduled a visit with the then executive director of the players association, Gene Upshaw,” related St. Ville. “When I told him what a group of us were trying to do, he broke down in tears.”
With a few phone calls on Upshaw’s part, within a year there was a 12,000 square foot rehabilitation facility to complete the work done by the medical staff on the retired players.
“When Arizona Cardinal player, Pat Tilman, announced he wanted to enter the military following the attack on 9/11 [2001] he asked and we let him use our facility to build himself up even more, prior to entering the Green Berets. His death still really hurts.”
One day, around that time, St. Ville’s secretary informed him two people without appointments were there to see him. They were retired professional baseball players, Joe Garagiola and Harmon Killebrew.
Said St. Ville, “They asked me to do the same for all the retired and destitute major league baseball players who were physically in bad shape.”
St. Ville has personally performed surgery on hundreds of players with the cost of donated goods and services running in the millions of dollars.
“One time, when Phoenix was hosting the Super Bowl, I had 44 Hall of Famers in my office. They were honoring me and I was in tears. But I was also reminded of the great rewards that come from following Johns Hopkins commitment to serving those in need.”
St. Ville is unmarried but has one son, also named James.
“He just turned 18 and excels in three sports: football, tae kwon do and alpine skiing,” said St. Ville, who told of his son winning national and world championships in tae kwon do and is among the top three in the under 19 category in European alpine skiing.
After 28 years in Phoenix, he thought it was time for a change. He accepted a temporary position, filling in for an orthopedic surgeon who was being deployed from the military base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. While he found working on wounded and retired veterans rewarding, he thought it was time to get back closer to home.
“Although we lived in Tulsa, I went along with my dad numerous times as he performed surgery in Joplin and Pittsburg.”
So to answer the question why the good doctor is coming to Nevada, he identified two reasons. The first was not unexpected.
“I wanted to be in a smaller town near where I grew up and this was the only opening that had what I was looking for,” said St. Ville.
It was the second part of his response which made it clear he is not biding his time until a better offer or one closer to Tulsa, comes along.
He said, “Once before I took a smaller surgical unit and built it up. And after looking around this place and talking to the staff, I’d like to stay and do that here. I’ve heard about what’s been going on with the hospital and it’s my intent to be part of the solution.”
Dr. James A. St. Ville already has an office in the hospital, has found an apartment, is looking to purchase a home and awaits his medical license.
He said, “There’s a lot of need around here and I can’t wait to get started.”