Dr. Michael Schafer

It is hard to imagine today, but in the middle of the last century the polio epidemic became the most notorious disease in the United States. It struck down children, mostly, and swept through entire communities with a vengeance that overwhelmed local healthcare providers. Children with polio and their families faced a life of potential paralysis. The best available treatment at the time was isolation and days or weeks encased in the “iron lung.”

Salk’s vaccine, which came out of the lab in 1953, eradicated polio. But, the campaign to treat polio victims played a critical role in creating the institutions and practice of modern orthopedic medicine. What is perhaps less well known, is that some of today’s leaders in the orthopedic community developed their passion for orthopedics and patient care after falling victim to polio themselves.

Dr. Michael Schafer, member of the Board of Directors of AAOS (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons), Associate Editor for both Spine and the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Chairman and Professor of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, is just such a child of the polio era.

I was born in Peoria, Illinois, to devoted parents who had never had the chance to attend college. When I was 10 years old I contracted polio and spent three months in the hospital—some of that time was in isolation and some of it was in an iron lung.

“In many respects that was the defining experience of my life in that it spurred my interest in helping others via medicine. I must credit not only the doctors, but my parents for getting me through that frightening experience. This was prior to tube feedings, so my mom used to sit at my bedside and feed me milkshakes. As for the doctors, of all those who treated me, it was the orthopedic surgeons who were the most empathic.”  

Dr. Schafer: “We moved to Aurora, Illinois, at the end of my freshman year in high school, where I attended a military academy with hard-driving teachers and coaches who valued teamwork. I briefly flirted with the idea of going to the Air Force Academy—sort of a ‘boys dreaming about fire engines’ thing. But during the application process I learned that I was color blind.”

While color blindness may have kept him out of the cockpit, it didn’t stop him from heading for the OR. Michael Schafer began a premed track at the University of Iowa in 1960. “I remained at Iowa for medical school and finished up in 1967. During those years I was blessed to work with Dr. Ignacio Ponseti, who was superb with patients in that he gave them lots of time and had tremendous empathy. I also interacted with Dr. Adrian Flatt, a hand surgeon who imbued me with his love of continuing education. While at Iowa I met Dr. Reginald Cooper, who would go on to become the Chair at Iowa, and would later become a mentor to me.”

What Dr. Schafer was learning was that medicine is a collaborative effort. At the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago a young Dr. Schafer crossed paths with Dr. Clinton Compere.

“Dr. Compere, a ‘giant’ in orthopedics, was starting to do total joint replacement and was the first surgeon in the Chicago area to do cemented total hips. He changed my rotation schedule and I was essentially his apprentice for 10 months. I would be getting ready for a case and leave to get Clint for the OR and I would catch him with an anatomy book in his hand. Dr. Bill Kane, a spine surgeon who was Chair at Northwestern, along with Reg Cooper, really ‘cemented’ in my own mind the idea of pursuing an academic career. With Bill’s help I received a March of Dimes fellowship from the National Polio Foundation, something which allowed me to spend 12 months training in Australia. It was a terrific time to be there because the Australians were developing some very innovative technology and procedures that weren’t being done in the U.S.”

It had been 20 years since Michael Schafer was in the iron lung wondering if he’d walk again. Now a trained healer, he decided it was time to elevate his service—this time to Uncle Sam. “I returned from Australia in 1973 and knew it was time to keep my commitment to the Army; they had deferred me through residency and given me time off to go to Australia. I was assigned to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, where my practice base consisted of the large active military population, as well as their dependents. Although I wasn’t able to do spine surgery during this time, serving as I did was the least I could do; there were a number of my classmates who had to serve abroad, and some who were killed in action.”

The Vietnam War officially ended in 1975 and by then Dr. Schafer, a Vietnam vet, had decided that it was time to come back home. “After completing my military duties, I came to Northwestern in 1974 as a junior faculty member. My family and I were glad to finally be putting down roots, as we had spent years traveling around. Two years later the Chair of orthopedics resigned and the new Chair appointed me as residency program director. Because I was close in age to the residents I had to learn how to separate friendship from work (especially challenging when it came time to do performance evaluations).”

Just four years after returning to Northwestern, his Chair called the young Dr. Schafer into his office. “In 1978 the Chair at Northwestern retired, and he called me in and said, ‘I’ve talked to the Dean and you are now the interim chair.’ I was only 36 years old; fortunately he had established an efficient administrative structure that I largely kept intact. During the two years that I was interim chair the search team looked and looked; I felt frustrated because it seemed that a lot of people didn’t understand the program. Meantime I received an offer to return to Iowa City and interview for an academic position. A week before I was due to interview, the Dean at Northwestern suspended the search and offered me the job. I did go to Iowa for the interview, and I went through the entire process and got to see how to recruit faculty members. But I was pleased to have the chance to ‘run the show’ at Northwestern, and was honored to accept their offer.”

While numerous administrative duties awaited his attention, Dr. Schafer could see that his first task was to smooth some ruffled feathers. “There were several internal people who had been interested in the Chairmanship; fortunately, we were able to get past this and develop close friendships. I was hired with two mandates: 1) Because there had been so many Chairs, the program was on probation…it was my job to get us off that list; 2) I was asked to build a full time faculty. As for the first task, we consolidated the residency program such that the residents don’t have to rotate outside of the city of Chicago. We have more than proven ourselves and in the last accreditation cycle were given five years, which is the maximum. In building a full time faculty, it was important to find individuals with expertise in different areas. The faculty had to understand the concept of no ‘I’ in team.”

It may be that Dr. Schafer’s dedication is affecting the life of someone in Los Angeles, Kenya, or South America. How? Through his residents.

“I think that my most valuable contribution to the field has been the residents I have trained. If you take nine residents a year over a 32-year career then I have trained almost 300 individuals. They have each gone on to affect the lives of countless patients around the world. My passion is lifelong learning, something I try to impart to those I train.”

An especially meaningful highlight of Dr. Schafer’s career was being selected for the 2008 William W. Tipton, Jr., M.D., Leadership Award, an honor bestowed by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. “Bill Tipton and I interned together years ago. He died at an early age of liver cancer and I was there at the end. He is recognized by his peers throughout the country as a real leader. One of the things I have learned about leadership is that while to one’s subordinates it looks easy, it can be really trying. Also, when you make decisions sometimes others think that you have not thought things out thoroughly. The most important, and perhaps least understood, thing is that you must be a consensus builder…you must have a talent for bringing people together who have disparate approaches and opinions.”

I have been an orthopedic consultant for the Chicago Cubs for 30 years and was the team orthopedic surgeon for the Chicago Bears for 10 years. These associations provided me with a unique insight into Americana.

Married since 1966, Dr. Schafer says that he has a “super” wife who “puts up with my shenanigans.” “We have five children, all grown and sporting post graduate degrees. Add to that mix our 16 grandchildren, most of whom keep my wife Eileen very busy. While my main hobby is family, I do enjoy reading historical fiction and exercising. My kids gave me a Kindle for Christmas, so I’m playing with that and reading Matterhorn from the Vietnam War era.”

Dr. Michael Schafer…a passion for orthopedics that started in an iron lung and now envelops hundreds of residents, countless patients and, through his inspiring leadership, the entire orthopedic community.