“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” couldn’t be more applicable to Jordan and Zachary Grabel. These West Palm Beach, Florida doctors aren’t just family who went into the same field of work – they’re a father-son duo who have performed surgeries together.
But before the two of them were able to work together, they even took similar paths. Before Dad, Jordan, became the chief of surgery at Good Samaritan Medical Center, he earned his medical degree from Brown University. This is the very school that Zachary would later earn his degree.
Growing up, Zachary always looked up to his Dad. He knew early on in life that he, too, wanted to be a doctor. Although he knew he wanted to perform surgeries, once he was able to complete his orthopedic surgery residency, he wasn’t sure what specialty he wanted to focus on.
Luckily, all Zachary needed to do in order to make the right decision was to keep doing what he had naturally done his whole life: consider following in his Dad’s footsteps.
“It works out nicely for me because obviously he’s been doing this a long time so he has a lot of expertise in certain areas,” Zachary told WPTV. “In those areas, I value his opinion. There are some newer techniques where I say ‘I think we should do it this way.’ He seems to value my opinion and it ends up working well.”
While it’s certainly a special treat for these two when they get to work side by side, once they’re in the operating room, their focus shifts from each other to the patient.
“We’re just very engrossed in the work,” Jordan said. “That’s all we’re thinking about… the work we’re doing at that point. After the operation we become father and son again. During the surgery, we just work like any two surgeons.”
One of the most special elements of Jordan and Zachary working together, they’ve found, is having the opportunity to learn from one another.
“It’s always great when you have a son or any child who wants to do somewhat what you do professionally,” Jordan said. “He had an early interest in medicine but I really had no idea until the last number of years that our paths would overlap this closely in the surgeries that we did.”
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