Just Remembering: a Surgeon Recalling the Past: A Surgeon Recalling the Past

By Dr. Bob Christensen

This book will help the reader see some of the experiences that have made up the life of this remarkable man, Dr. Robert W. Christensen. It will give the reader an idea of the innovative and entrepreneurial genius of a surgeon who was looking for ways to alleviate some of the misery of several human conditions. It is factual, sometimes graphic, but mostly very interesting and informative. The reader will be captivated page after page. The essence of this book is about the courage in the face of significant opposition from the establishment and Dr. Christensens dependence upon God. His desire to teach professionals as well as ordinary people who were plagued with various maladies is well presented. All who read this book will be blessed.

Dr. James T. Curry

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479763832

Book preview

A Surgeon Recalling the Past

By

Dr. Bob Christensen

With Contributions by

Linda Chubb

Nancy Mills

Carol Ginther-Land

Captain Dale Black

Lenaya Casados

Foreword by

Randolph C. Robinson, MD, DDS

Copyright © 2012 by Dr. Robertt W. Christensen. 126959-CHRI

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4797-6382-5

E-book 978-1-4797-6383-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced

or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or

mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any

information storage and retrieval system, without permission in

writing from the copyright owner.

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Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Forward

Just Remembering - Introduction

Dedication

The Time of My Graduation from NYU

My First Practice and Life in the Mountains of California

A Slight Change of Direction

Back In the Navy Again

The Beginning of My Specialty Practice as an Associate

Our Early Years in the Solo Practice in Pasadena

Nancy Mills Recalls

REMEMBERING …By Linda Chubb

The Arrival of Mary O’Neill

My Middle Years of Innovation

• The Circumferential Dental Implant

• The TMJ Implants

• The Transosseous Dental Implant

• The Endosseous Implant

• The Modular Mandibular Implant

Gone Cattle Ranching

Captain Dale Black, God’s Aviator, My Mentor and My Friend

Some of My Flying Days

A Twelve Year Old Is Healed Of Cancer

Rosie’s Boyfriend

My Drag Racing Experience

The Call to Start TMJ Implants, Inc.

The FDA Issues

My Days with Dr. Christensen…

Not long ago while working at a store, a customer named Dr. Christensen wearing a yellow polo shirt sat patiently waiting on a printing job. He was twirling gently in a swivel chair in his own little world when he smiled at me kindly. From that day on, he became my friend.it was that simple.

Over the next few months I would go see Dr. Christensen at his office three to four times a week to help him with a bit of a project. He had asked me as a medical transcriptionist to proofread a manuscript he was preparing about a battle with the FDA. At first, he was very serious and told me all about the situation in which he was writing. Appalled at the treatment and unjust outcome of his battle, I became drawn in this whirlpool to help him in any way I could.

Over time, he became morecomfortable with sharing stories about his life and his profession.Some of the stories would make me laugh and some would bring tears tomy eyes. I knew quickly, that he was unique. God had used him in manyvarious ways to heal people with the gifts He had given him.

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Having entered my life only a short time ago, I am still uncertain of all the wonderful things others must know him for/as. Yet after hearing and reading much about his life, his successes and losses, I know him as many things beautiful; a tremendous doctor, innovator, fighter, adventurer, writer, dear friend, God’s warrior, and even a teacher. Some of the stories he has shared with me are in this book. In all hopes, it will bring to you, the reader, the same emotion and conclusion that knowing Dr. Christensen has brought to me. He has left an indelible mark upon my life and God has gifted me and all who have ever met Dr. Christensen with his smile and kindness. He has trusted me with many of his projects since we have met and all have been a pleasure working on with him. Not many people can say they have led or could keep track of such a full life, although I am quite certain that I could write my own book about his incredible journey…from just the (hundreds of) emails alone!

Lenaya Casados 6-6-12

Forward

Randolph C. Robinson, MD, DDS

Many men elect to go through life never asking the hard questions of why and why not because they are afraid of offending or learning what might be demanded of them in response to the answers, but not Dr. Bob Christensen. For the short twenty five years I have known him, he has challenged the status quo in surgical innovation and challenged us all to live our lives with a greater commitment to Jesus Christ. I am proud to call him a friend and appreciate all he has done to teach me about surgery and life.

His innovation, creativity, and tenacity have contributed immensely to our specialty of oral and maxillofacial surgery. I met Dr. Christensen at Truman Medical Center in about 1986 or 1987 when I was a third year resident in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Dr. Ed Mosby was a leader in the field of TMJ total joint replacement surgery using the Vitek prosthesis. This prosthesis was later pulled from the market and it left a black eye on TMJ surgery which even to this day shows some lingering bruising.

Dr. Christensen had developed a new joint which was better and safer and Dr. Moses wanted us to learn about it. What I learned was that a man with an idea could build a company and help many more patients than he could by operating on them one at a time. After all, so I thought, this is America, entrepreneurs welcome. His work was an example to me that a person could take his ideas to market to help others.

I don’t remember a lot about the lecture other than a few slides but I remember the enthusiasm of the speaker and his little side jokes which seemed to entertain him sometimes more than the audience. He did not display any tone of arrogance and was approachable with questions, rare qualities among us surgeons.

As an inventor and one who has dealt with the vicissitudes of the Food and Drug Administration, I always looked up to Dr. Christensen for trying to keep his work moving forward for the sake of those patients in need. I know the hurt and burden this struggle has been for him and have the highest respect for him as a result. He did everything he could for as long as he could.

Over the years he has helped me with many of my joint patients along with Dr. James Curry. At one point we even seriously tried to merge our two companies together. I enjoyed reading Just Remembering—A Surgeon Recalling the Past because it gave me a greater understanding of the adventures of a man who has made a difference for others. The surgical stories are entertaining from his first patient as a dentist in Chester, California to performing a tracheostomy on a calf. The amazing stories of his various endeavors include operating a Cat-9 bulldozer in a river to flying a Citation jet make one think, on one hand, this guy is crazy but, on the other hand, gee I’d like to do that, too.

The central focus of the book is: how does a guy like Dr. Bob Christensen become a born again Christian willing to serve the Lord Jesus for others? The story, Bob’s life story, shows that

Proverbs 19:6 is true, The mind of man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps. His story shows that adversity can mean opportunity and that no one escapes adversity. The adversity comes unfairly sometimes from friends, colleagues and government regulators causing frustration and anger. But the key is how that adversity is used for advancement in deepening a relationship to God. I hope you will find his story fun to read and inspiring as I did to ask the hard questions why and why not.

Just Remembering

A Surgeon Recalling the Past

By

Dr. Bob Christensen and others

Introduction

For a number of years I had thought about writing about some of the things that have transpired as I travelled through all of my years as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. I have previously written several books about my earlier life as a young cowboy growing up in Julian, California. I really felt that some of my children might enjoy knowing some of the history which I had travelled through, especially in the years of the Great Depression, and perhaps the little I might remember of earlier generations. I really feel everyone has a story to tell and for some later generations it might be fun to compare to the time they might be living. I know I would have been most appreciative of my grandparents or great grandparents if they could have found time and energy to put together such a history of their own lives.

I kept thinking there are some things which happened as I travelled down my path as a surgeon which might be of interest to some later on. I kept getting that thought and even mentioned it to three ladies who a half century or more ago were my assistants in my surgery practice and in many of the surgeries that I encountered along the way. I knew they too might remember things which happened that I didn’t remember or that they looked at it from a different vantage point than mine. It has been such a blessing to be able to reunite with these three women, all of whom played a substantial part in the story which we will tell. Their names are Linda Chubb, Nancy Mills and Carol Ginther-Land although we worked together in the 1950s and early 1960s, our respect and friendship through all of these years has never diminished. Linda and I have stayed closely in touch through all of these subsequent years while Nancy and Carol and I have found each other many years later. Though the years have elapsed and the gray hairs and wrinkles may have come, the love and friendship has survived intact. I owe a great deal of appreciation to these three helpers who allowed me to accomplish some of the things which I was called to accomplish.

More recently a young Christian woman and friend of mine, Lenaya Casados, has encouraged me to write this book which will be about some of the interesting or funny things which have happened as I have travelled down the road of my life as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. This road started some 64 years ago so it will take some ability of mine to possibly recall. My ability to remember all of the details may be difficult since I am in my 87th year on this planet. Lenaya has been most helpful in helping me prepare another 20 books for publication and I am most grateful. She truly is a Gem, but I will add, She made me do it.

Some of the things in this book will likely be just stories and others will have a funny side or twist. They will not be written to mock anybody that might have been a patient, but at times may mock me as the professional.

As I write some of these stories I am attempting to give a picture of portions of the life of an oral and maxillofacial surgeon who lived in a particular time so that some who come later will know of some of the better things we might have done but also some of the mistakes we may have made. As the word somewhere says, to err is human. This book is not intended to portray a surgeon any different than his colleagues, but just another of God’s people attempting to use his God given abilities to help some part of humanity.

I have written this book to encourage others to do whatever he or she has been ordained to do to improve and relieve those whose care is placed, for a moment, in their hands. Although I may tell the story as though I had individually performed all of the surgeries alone, I am forever grateful to the men and women who walked with me to accomplish whatever we accomplished in the medical and surgical realm. It is a walk which I have enjoyed and a walk that I am grateful to our Creator for allowing me to walk and to play a small part in a few others lives.

Dedication

Being primarily a Christian author I adhere to the banner which we had on the wall of our medical device company for the better part of a quarter century. The banner, in 9 inch stainless steel letters, made the following statement for all to see; To Know Him and To Make Him Known. That refers to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Thus, this book is dedicated to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith and certainly the One, who with the Holy Spirit, not only ordains each one of us for whatever we are called to do, but who guides us daily. I am forever grateful.

But to so many others whose lives touched mine in so many ways from those early years of growing up and finding which path to take, such as Eva and Lee Christensen, my parents who showed me the way. But I also am grateful for my deceased brother, Charles, and deceased sister, Shirley, both of whom were there to help mentor and love me as their young sibling.

Certainly, I am most appreciative, too, of my biologic father, Dr. Charles J. Brophy and then years after his death to his brother, Dr. Frederick H. Brophy and his wife Muriel who took me into their home in Pelham, NY during my training at NYU. My father was an extraordinary dentist in his short life having brought forth an innovation for new toothpaste. It never quite got off the ground because of his death in 1927 at age 41.

To my wife, Lynne, for the forty years she has walked with me through some interesting moments and