During World War II, Dr. Brown served his country as a Captain in the Army. He was Chief of Orthopedic Service at the 4th General Hospital in Manilla, Philippine Islands and through the Active War Campaign in Okinawa.
After Dr. Stanek left the practice in 1952, Drs. Matchett and Brown moved to a brand new clinic at 1830 Williams Street (1955). The name of the practice was known as Matchett & Brown.
Denver was a growing metropolitan area with over 800,000 residents in the late 1950’s and only twenty-seven orthopaedic surgeons. Drs. Matchett and Brown worked hard to provide excellent service to their patients, establishing the “Western Philosophy” of patient care. They were also pioneers in contributing to the modern era of hip replacement surgery, inventing and developing the “Matchett-Brown” long-stemmed hip prosthesis. Previously the stem of metal hip-replacements that were short and often became loose, causing thigh pain and a high failure rate. Dr. Matchett and Brown’s innovative prosthesis was a more anatomically correct femoral neck and ball design, with a longer stem. This provided more stability to the femur, resulting in less post-operative pain, increased prosthetic longevity, and greater patient satisfaction. It is estimated that over 30,000 Matchett-Brown prostheses were implanted before newer prosthetic models were invented.
Western Orthopaedics began to take its current shape when Dr. Fred Teal joined the practice. After completing his Orthopaedic training in Denver and military service in 1969, Dr. Teal followed the Orthopaedic footsteps of his father. Dr. Fritz Teal, who was Chief Surgeon of the Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Drs. Matchett, Brown, and Teal continued to serve the community for several years, and in 1978 recruited James Holmes, MD to join the practice. Dr. Holmes had completed his residency in Colorado in 1974, worked in the orthopedic hospital at Oswestry England for a year and had served in the US Army. Western Orthopaedics, PC was officially born. Dr. Holmes eagerly began work in Denver, but also traveled throughout the Midwest with Dr. Brown as Team Physician for the University of Colorado football team. In 1980, western Kansan outreach clinics were established.
Dr. Holmes’ arrival marked the “changing of the guard” at Western Orthopaedics. In 1978, after over 45 years of Orthopaedic service, Dr. Matchett retired, followed by Dr. Brown in 1987.
In October of 2006 we were sad to say goodbye to Dr. Teal. He retired after 37 years of incredible care and service. Following Dr. Teal's retirement was the departure of Dr. Gargaro in December of 2007. After 3 years of service, Dr. Gargaro took a position at Kaiser Permanente to practice medicine.
Things continued to move and shake here at Western Orthopaedics. We welcomed Dr. Brian White, who arrived in September, 2008. Dr. White has become actively involved in the development of new instrumentation for hip arthroscopy to improve the arthroscopic treatment of FAI (femoracetabular impingement).
We then welcomed Dr. Steve Traina in March 2009. Dr. Traina has been the team physician for the Denver Nuggets since 1986. In April 2010 we were thrilled to add a hand specialist, Dr. Thomas Mordick. These two physicians alone bring an additional 40 years of experience to our group.
Another change was welcomed in September of 2009. A beautiful new location at 1830 Franklin Street, Suite #450 in Denver, Colorado. Our new office is actually just one block south of our previous building. And interestingly enough 1830 was the street number for our practice in 1955. Funny how sometimes things come full circle.
We would love to have you come for a tour of our new office.
