Aloha … from BethCOrthopedic surgeon Dr. Bess Brackett joins Gifford
After 25 years caring for area residents,
Dr. William Minsinger retires from Gifford
RANDOLPH, Aug. 21, 2009 –Dr. Bess Brackett knew from an early age that she would be an orthopedic surgeon.
The oldest of five children, her father is an orthopedist and started bringing young Bess with him to work in their native Illinois beginning at about age 5.
“I used to go with dad to the emergency room to help him put on casts. And then, when I was older, I went to the operating room and helped him in surgery,” she says.
She was just 12 when she first “scrubbed in.”
“I really have been in training in orthopedic surgery before age 12,” says the veteran surgeon who has now joined Gifford Medical Center in Randolph.
Following through on her dream – and her father’s advice that she’d have to work hard to join the family profession – she attended the University of Chicago, graduating in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in the history, philosophy and social studies of science and medicine.
Medical school at the University of Cincinnati followed. She graduated in 1988 and went on to five years of residency at St. Luke’s Hospital, an affiliate of Case Western Reserve in Cleveland.
In 1993, she joined her father in practice in Oak Park, Ill., for six years before starting her own practice, Emerald Orthopaedics, in 1999 in Greeley, Colo. She was on the medical staffs and preformed surgeries at North Colorado Medical Center and the Medical Center of the Rockies, both in Colorado.
That was until an old friend reached out to her.
Dr. Stephanie Landvater, a popular Vermont orthopedic surgeon with a bustling practice, joined Gifford and the Gifford Health Center at Berlin in 2006. Dr. Landvater was busy and her Gifford colleague, Dr. William Minsinger, was planning his retirement. (A Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center provider, Dr. Minsinger of Randolph Center practiced at Gifford for 25 years before retiring at the end of June.)
An opportunity awaited.
“I’ve been a friend of Dr. Stephanie Landvater for more than 16 years. She’s the one who told me to come because she’s so busy. We share the same philosophy of treating patients as if we were the patient, and we have the same goal of excellent patient outcomes,” says Dr. Brackett of what brought her to Gifford and Vermont.
After a trek from Colorado to Vermont that involved a couple of breakdowns, before abandoning her minivan in favor of a flight, Dr. Brackett began work at the Randolph medical center with little sleep but plenty of enthusiasm on Aug. 3.
“I’m really excited to be relocating to Vermont, in particular the Randolph area and especially Gifford Medical Center,” she says.
Dr. Brackett is living in Randolph while she looks for a permanent residence. She’s married to fellow physician, internist and infectious disease specialist Dr. James Currie, and has two children who will start at Randolph Union High School this month – seventh grade Donovan, 12, and sophomore Bonnie, 14.
Dr. Brackett enjoys the outdoors, including hiking, skiing and biking as well as “playing mom,” speaking German, playing and conducting music, the arts and literature.
She calls the Randolph area “steeped” in her interests and filled with a “real sense of community.”
To that community, she brings to a combination of high-tech skill and common sense medicine.
Certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, she’s a fellow with the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, a former board member of the Ruth Jackson Orthopedic Society, serves on the Colorado Medical Society and is on the board of the Clinical Orthopedic Society.
She does general orthopedic surgery on the shoulders, upper extremities, hips, knees and ankles; she recently completed training in hip resurfacing; does knee arthroscopies, carpal tunnel releases and total joint replacements; and cares for fractures.
But she also offers conservative, or non-surgical, treatment of muscular skeletal ailments and – as the kids would say – is a bit old school.
From her early work with her father, “I know stuff they don’t teach anymore,” she says, describing a Civil War technique for setting a broken shoulder with a velpeau sling that relieves pain by providing stability to the shoulder and bests today’s alternatives.
To put Dr. Brackett’s skill and unique experience to work for you, call her at Gifford at (802) 728-2455. She’s begins seeing outpatients in Dr. Minsinger’s former space on the third floor of the medical center at 44 S. Main St. in Randolph in September.