William Blair Jr. – Hip Surgery Success Story
Extra, extra! William Blair Jr., hip surgery success story
Newspaper veteran has good things to say about Methodist Charlton
Ninety-year-old William Blair Jr. arrives at Elite News’ headquarters
in Dallas each morning at 8 a.m. wearing a suit, tie, and hat.
“It’s a habit,” says Blair, who believes in always coming to work dressed to do business.
Blair is a trailblazer. He played with the Negro National League, distinguished as the highest level of professional baseball for African-Americans between 1920 and 1955. He was the youngest black sergeant to serve in the U.S. Army in 1945 during World War II. A civil rights activist for more than 50 years, Blair established the first Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Dallas. And in 1948, he founded Southwest Sports News, which was later renamed Elite News, to highlight African-American churches and people making a difference in their community, politics, and sports. Sixty years later, the newspaper is still in print.
Given his accomplishments and determination, it should be no surprise that Blair was hard at work in his office at Elite News when he fell and broke his hip. The injury led to hip surgery performed at Methodist Charlton Medical Center by Clinton Bell, MD, independently practicing orthopedic surgeon on the medical staff.
“The staff at Methodist Charlton is the finest bunch of people I have ever been around in my whole life,” Blair says. “They treat you like family.”
He was so impressed with the Methodist Charlton staff that he placed an article in Elite News about his experience.
“I want to tell everybody this is the best hospital I’ve ever been in,” he says. Following his stay at Methodist Charlton, Blair received physical rehabilitation at Methodist Rehabilitation Hospital. He walked out of the hospital six days later on his own, without crutches or a walker.
A winning combination
Dr. Bell says he’s proud of Blair’s successful healing and recovery.
“The medical expertise of the team here coupled with Mr. Blair’s determination to succeed helped him to recover from this injury and the subsequent surgeries,” he says. “Now we can add this to his list of accomplishments.”
One might compare Blair’s comments about Methodist Charlton to his statement about Elite News, which he says is devoted to nothing but the truth: “I’m not telling what I heard,” he says. “I’m telling you what I know.”
From the fall 2012 edition of Shine magazine.