After 30 years of replacing hips and knees, Dr. Tod Ghormley experienced orthopedic surgery from the other side of the table.

By the time he gave in and decided to have a hip replacement earlier this year, he could barely tie his shoes and anti-inflammatory medicine was part of his daily routine. “Running too many marathons finally caught up to me,” he said.

 Ghormley was waiting on technology. Having performed a new minimally invasive direct superior approach for hip replacement in conjunction with the Mako robotic arm assisted hip replacements for five months, he was convinced that it was what he wanted for his own surgery. “I wanted someone to do mine, and no one else in Arkansas was using both of those procedures like he does at that time,” he said. Ghormley found a colleague in Shreveport to perform the procedures to replace his hip.

 Ghormley was back to work in a week and taking the stairs the day after surgery. His wife, Mimi, had traditional hip replacement surgery in Little Rock six years earlier and it took her three weeks before she could walk the stairs.

  “I look at my hip today and it’s a miracle,” said Ghormley. “That’s why I just love being an orthopedic surgeon. I had a hip that hurt every day. Now I walk fast without pain. It is a blessing to live in times in which this technology exists.”

 One of his passions is learning new technology. “In 30 years of practice, there have been many innovations,” he said. “Every year, in all my years of surgery, I do newer, more innovative procedures.”

He said the most significant new technology is Mako robotic arm assisted orthopedic surgery for hips and knees.

 “It’s a game changer. Our patients have less pain, less soft tissue injury and much faster recovery time,” he said. “The robot sets boundaries; it doesn’t let you touch certain structures of the knee. Knees fit like a glove; they are more balanced. Hips have precise placement of the socket and greater stability.” In addition to Ghormley, Orthopedists Scott Smith, MD, and Grant Bennett, MD, perform Mako hip and knee replacements out of Conway Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Center. While the technology is relatively new to Conway and to Arkansas as a whole, Ghormley predicts that robotic procedures will become the norm within five years.

 DNA Driven

It was in Ghormley’s DNA to become an orthopedist. Born into a family of medical professionals, he told his mother he wanted to be a physician at age 6. After completing a stint in the US Marine Corps, Ghormley decided on orthopedics after his sister, a surgical nurse, let him observe a number of cases in an operating room. 

 He enrolled at the University of Houston for undergraduate school and left two years later for medical school at the University of Texas, Galveston. He fondly recalled studying his medical books while listening to the waves on the beach. An orthopedics residency at the Texas Tech School of Medicine followed. “I just really love doing every type of orthopedic surgery,” said Ghormley.

 Arkansas Connection

Tod and Mimi Ghormley chose Conway for the orthopedics practice and their home after Tod met Rick McCarron, an Arkansan, during residency training in Lubbock, Texas. “We discussed that Conway needed an orthopedics practice. Mimi and I loved the community and told him we would move here only if he would join us,” said Ghormley. Together, they established what would become the Conway Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Center.

 “Rick McCarron is such an even-keeled, godly man.  It’s been a blessing to practice with him and our other partners for 30 years,” said Ghormley. He remembered being called up for overseas medical corps duty during Operation Desert Storm early in their practice. Dr. McCarron took emergency medical call every night by himself during this period.

 Their partnership thrived, and today the clinic has five orthopedists, a podiatrist, three physicians assistants and one advanced practice nurse in practice at its Club Lane location.

 Tod and Mimi Ghormley have been married for four decades. They have two adult children: Megan, 34, a counselor in Fayetteville, and Ben, 37, a worship minister at New Life Church, a son in law (Garrett) is a pastor at New Life Church in Fayetteville, and a daughter in law (Megan) who is an advanced practice nurse on a cardiac intensive care unit in Little Rock. He added, “We have five adorable, rambunctious grand children who are under seven years old who keep us young and on the run.”

(Originally published in Faulkner County Lifestyle Magazine)