Ingram's October 2022

18

JASON EPPLER Research Medical Center/HCA Midwest Health

DOUG CUSICK Cusick Plastic Surgery/AdventHealth

One can make a nice living as a physician—but not with out first paying some serious dues. Consider the case of Doug Cusick, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Leawood. More than 35 years since medical school at Oral Roberts University, he’s still helping people regain their health and self-esteem. And not just in this region, but around the world through an exhaustive and extensive series of overseas mission work. Retirement? “I haven’t thought about it,” he says. “There are two reasons for that: One, I didn’t finish my education until I was 34. I went to my 15-year reunion from Shawnee Mission South, and some were already millionaires and one was on his third wife, and here I am, still in residency.” The second reason, unsurprisingly, is that he finds his work “tremendously reward

Jason Eppler was not yet 10 years old when his father— then in his 30s—suffered a heart attack and underwent bypass surgery. That experience made one lasting impression. Another came from observing the physicians who treated his dad and the quality of care and compassion they brought to the task in the decades that followed. “He did very well, is still alive and do ing well today, and that’s a testament to having excellent phy

sicians and surgeons,” Eppler says. That, and an inspiration al pediatrician who mentored him in middle and high school, helped seal the deal on a career in medicine for Eppler. A micro biology and biochemistry major in college, Eppler pondered a Plan B in an engineering disci pline, but health care won out. At first, pediatrics seemed like a natural path, but “I realized I en joyed seeing all ages of people, specifically doing procedures,”

ing.” His interest in surgery be gan when he was just a kid, he says, “and continues to this day. It’s something that’s so satisfy ing, I don’t hardly see it as work. It’s nice to have patients that are so happy, so thankful, giving you hugs.” After an undergraduate path through Washington Uni versity in St. Louis, then KU, for a business degree, he settled on medicine. But before heading to Tulsa for his M.D., he spent a year in Scotland, and came back

he says. Part of that appeal of ER, he says, is that “it’s never the same two days in a row. The other benefit comes along is the patient variety, getting to see patients of all ages. In ER, you’re kind of an investigator, where the presentation is not always the same every time. So you put on that investigator hat, and you look to connect dots. I love that ability with the team to impact patients in their moment of greatest need, that golden hour when people are critically ill or injured, and you have to act fast. It puts all your skills to the test, all at once.” It’s a different type of health-care delivery, because by its nature it precludes long-term relationships with patients. “There’s just a bit of a brief reward with the gratification because you don’t have that continuity of care,” Eppler says. “Sometimes, I do get patients who are able to come back and provide some follow-up, but those are few and far between. It’s something I did miss from a family medicine standpoint, but at the same time, it makes you hone your skills when you only have a few minutes to break the ice and establish a relationship with a pa tient and have them instill their trust in you.” In ER, he says, some cases stay in your mind more than others, “and some you try to repress.” But a powerful validation of his ER work came not long ago when a car-accident victim was rushed in, and paramedics suggested that he might have had a stroke. “Because they made that astute call, we mobilized our stroke and trauma teams, everyone was ready,” Eppler says. “The next day, I was amazed to see him sitting up in bed, moving every thing, talking appropriately. He was discharged three days later with no deficits whatsoever. That was impactful because it was a tremendous demonstration of the power of additive resourc es coming together and working seamlessly. It validated why I enjoy working in a busy trauma unit at Research, because we have the ability to make a big impact on people’s lives.”

with two life-changing influences: One was Barb, his wife of 39 years; the other was a burning passion for mission work over seas. “I went to ORU for medical school because they send you on missions, and my real goal all my life has been medical mis sions.” To date, he’s been on 54, counting this month’s trip to Peru. In roughly two dozen countries, he’s brought a sense of normalcy to the lives of children too poor to afford surgery for maladies like lip and cleft palates or facial and head cancers, or people who needed noses or ears rebuilt after infection or inju ry—almost anything, he says, that “brings back self-worth and self-esteem.” As passions go, his work isn’t far removed from his hobby; Cusick rebuilds antique musical instruments in his spare time. Some of those are two centuries old and entail del icate reconstruction of valves and pneumatics. “Plastic surgery is just like working on instruments,” he says. “Fixing tendons, nerves, working under the microscope. It’s just exactly like re storing those instruments, and it’s one reason I got into the field.” Cusick sees patients at multiple hospitals in the area and serves as a clinical instructor for KU’s school of medicine. His own practice hasn’t been as disrupted as other niches during the pandemic, but the experience of the past 2½ years has given him a new appreciation for what he does. “I’ve come to real ize how vulnerable we are as people,” he says. “There’s also a specific population who are vulnerable, and we need to protect them. Our responsibility as a community and in medicine is to protect people from all disease, not just COVID.”

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October 2022

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