It's Kershaw Day at Dodgers Stadium for the first time this season. And a big reason why Clayton Kershaw is on the mound today is because of the greatest orthopedic surgeon in the world, and he is the Dodgers team physician. Everybody from William Shatner to Tom Brady to Kobe Bryant to Clayton Kershaw comes to see this man, and that is the great doctor Neil Elatrosh. Doctor Elatrosh, really special to have you on this day more than any other day in recent memory.
Wow, David, I don't know how you can expect me to sit through that introduction.
It's very, very generous.
But I've been waiting for this day, probably as much more than anybody, maybe with the exception of Clayton.
There's a great story recently in The New Yorker and it just describes the trust that you build with your patients. How much trust did you have to build with Clayton to be able to not only have them to your home the night before the surgery, but also for him to and trust you with his pitching future.
I think that that you hit on the thing that's the main ingredient, that's absolutely necessary to take care of these kinds of athletes. And you know, really anybody to have a physician have somebody's health in their hands. I think that without trust, you know, the results never would reach their potential. So but that especially true for athletes and athletes at this level. I've noticed that that that's probably the most important ingredient is trust, and it goes
both ways. I have to trust that, you know, he's going to give me all the information I need to take the best care of my can, and he obviously has to trust me that I'm going to do everything I need to do everything I can do to take as good a care of him as possible. You know, without it, nothing works well. With it, everything's possible.
Why did you have him spend a night at your house the night before this surgery?
Well, that was that was sort of simple.
You know, he his family was already in Texas, he had so he had really no furniture. There was nothing in the house that would and so you know, I knew he wouldn't be comfortable there because it really wasn't the home that he and Ellen, you know, are used to, and so you know that there was no reason for me to have him get tucked in by some concierge
at a hotel. And so I've been known to when there's people that have traveled in and they may not be professional athletes and maybe maybe be somebody that's traveled in doesn't really have a lot of support. The night before, the night after surgery, I surprised my wife and I bring home.
A house guest.
In this case, it happened to be Clayton, and there was no way I was gonna, you know, turn him loose to a hotel.
No doubt.
Doctor Neil Elatosh not only the best as far as orthopedic surgeons go in the world, but as you can tell, he cares about the people that are trusting him.
You are one of one.
There's no doubt about that.
He's one of one.
Is this surgery for him to be able to be on the mound eight months later one of one.
He's the first.
One that I know of that is coming back to sports at this level with with this particular operation.
To be able to do what we did, it.
Had to be done arthroscopically for him to have a chance of being able to rehabit and get his motion back, to be able to give him a chance to play this year. And if we couldn't accomplish that, and it would have had to be done with a more invasive approach, we wouldn't be where we are. And the problem with
this particular diagnosis is it's really exceedingly difficult. Some some think not possible to accomplish this arthroscopically, and but we know with newer technology and newer tools that were constantly working on to develop, I thought we had a reasonable chance. But you know, I don't know if I'm one of one. I think there's a lot of very talented surgeons out there, but very few have the opportunity to to, you know, try to help somebody like Clayton Kershaw with an injury like this.
And so.
I'm in that situation, and I you know, said a prayer before before the night before, and and uh, and I envisioned, you know what, what we possibly could get done, and and it.
All worked out.
So now it's just a matter of getting him back to the battle. You know that this is uh, he's been doing this all his life and and there's a lot of changes in the body that go along with
that over the years. And you know, somebody like Clayton doesn't doesn't talk a lot about, you know, the things that they go through to be able to show up every spring and to be able to to go through a grueling one hundred and sixty two game schedule plus postseason, and and the Dodgers always ended up in the postseason. And we always rode Clayton. We rode him hard in September.
In October, I was talking to Joe Tory the other day and he said, he said that that boy, you know, and Joe can say that because Joe's a bit older, but there's no disrespect back Joe.
Joe loves Clayton.
But he said that, would you know he went through a lot because you know, they we were always depending on him to be the great Clayton Kershaw multiple times in September and leading into the postseason when there's the most stress, and you know, he'll never he'll never talk about the difficulty and being able to to make it through that for as long as he has. But I've
really come to have an enormous amount of respect. I'm very fond of him personally, but an enormous amount of respect for the for the man and the the athlete that he.
Is as you go through this process with him. Is there something that that he found out about you and you found out about him during this process?
Maybe what he found out about me was that that this is really all I know how to do to help somebody like him, and that he he was going to get to sleep in a in a bed that had baby girl in neon, neon, sign over and talk because it's my daughter's bedroom.
But but I think that.
We learned a lot about you know each other.
And uh, as long as you can know.
Somebody and think think that you know their story, there's nothing that gets it really focused and intimate, like when when you go through something like this as a surgeon and a and a patient and so I I just it it really you see these guys when they're at their most most vulnerable and and so you see the real real man, you know.
Doctor Neil Elatrosh is our guest on Kershaw Day. Clayton Kershaw making his season debut this afternoon. When you come to the stadium on a day like today, how emotional will you when you see him warm up? Today?
Well, I mean I think that maybe that does does describe I will have a lot of emotion about it. I I I had those same emotions when when I saw Walker come back this year.
But but you know, whenever.
You go through something like this and you see what what they've done and the way they've gone about it, like like Clayton, you can't help but really feel the gravity and the and the emotion of the situation, you know, you know, watching him make the decision, well what he.
Was going to do this year, and all he wanted, all he wanted to do.
Was to make sure that he could live up to and fulfill what whatever a baseball contract would would want coming back on the other side to you know, what what his obligation was.
And and I just I watched go through.
It, and it was remarkable, you know, how much integrity he has. He's he's a hard worker, ultimate, ultimate professional. And it's been a real privilege too to see I've learned a lot from him. I've learned a lot from him about pitching things that I that I will carry through and be able to, you know, hopefully help other people.
I already have used some of the knowledges I've gained from him and people like Walker, And so it's it's shaped and formed a lot of and informed a lot of my my thinking about how to take care of these guys. And but he's been a remarkable partner to go through this with.
And he did all the work. I did a little surgery, he did all the work.
All Right, Well, you're very humble and that is reflected in you still learning at this stage of your career. Kershaw, Tom Brady, Kobe, they were at the top their game. You never have to retire, right, doctor Niolo Trash. There's a lot of people that still need you in the world.
Well, I'll help whoever I can, but I can't can't do can't do this forever. Yeah, but it's really I really can't been thirty four years or so that I've been doing it now. And if I would have been asked to write the script of how this was going to go and that I would have a chance to be, you know, trusted by some of these guys that you mentioned to take take care of them, never would have believed it in a million years. And so it's just it's been amazing, it's really been amazing.
I know your mentor was doctor Frank Job. I'm sure he's very proud of what you've been able to accomplish and just how you've been able to carry on his legacy and take it to another level. And I think everybody that has ever met you or coming in contact with you certainly respects you, not only for what those magic hands can do, but obviously the big heart you have inside as well.
You know, it's it's interesting, thank you for saying that, you know, talk about magic hands. Frank Joe was the most beautiful surgeon I've ever seen. But but it's interesting you brought him up because I remember talking to him up in the press box about this young Clayton Kersher. I hadn't even met him yet, and he was telling me about this lefty that that is was looking amazing and that they're they really are chomping at the bit to get him up up here to the big leagues.
And they were looking at dates in the calendar, and and Frank was one of those guys that was pushing back a little bit to have him be careful about about how quickly he was coming up, because he knew what happens to some of these young phenoms when they when they come up young, it's like the horses out of the gate, and you can never get it back in the gate. It's the then it's the max intensity
and the volume that these that they're gonna pitch. And and Clayton was very young at the time, it was like two thousand and five, two thousand and six, somewhere in there. And and I remember Frank telling me, we just have to be really careful when you have a talent like this, you know, you have to let it mature, let it nurture it, and let it mature. And Frank was so smart, you know when it came to you know, sort of decisions like that. And I think that's why
they included him so much. The O'Malleys, you know, had such a great experience with him over so long. They they really centered a lot of those decisions around Frank.
And he was right, because you.
Know, he's one of the greatest left handers I've ever seen in my life.
Doctor Latrosh, thanks a lot for the time, no doubt, right next to Ellen and the kids, you are going to be very proud and maybe the biggest smile at Dodger Stadium, right next to them on Clayton Kershaw's season debut.
Thanks David, It's an honor privilege to work with him and to talk to you.
Thank you,