Dr. Thomas Donaldson reflects on surgical mastery and why understanding a patient’s life story is essential to healing.

Episode Highlights

  • 1:59 – mentored by the maintenance man
  • 9:44 – pre-visualizing surgery at 2am
  • 13:15 – advice for preserving our joints
  • 15:20 – accidents that informed health care philosophy

Meet Our People

Dr. Thomas Donaldson

Dr. Thomas Donaldson is an orthopedic surgeon devoted to his craft and caring for his patients. With 30 years of practice behind him, Donaldson still wakes each morning praying, “God bless these hands,” and reminding himself, “Today I have to be better than yesterday.” He rigorously reviews patient imaging and mentally rehearses surgeries at night because, as he says, you cannot sleep if something needs fixing. A bilingual physician whose Spanish opened doors to international surgical work, Donaldson believes being chosen by patients is the ultimate measure of trust. Having survived two life-altering injuries himself, he now guards his patients fiercely, insisting that medicine must treat the person, not just the bone. Donaldson is chair of the department of orthopedic surgery at Loma Linda University Health and professor of orthopedics at Loma Linda University School of Medicine.

View Profile