Surgical Techniques May Change Through the Years, but the Body Does Not

After graduation from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine in 1972, orthopedic surgeon Riley Jones, MD, managed to find just enough money and a few hours each week during his internship to take flying lessons.

He would seem to be an unlikely candidate to be traveling high above the operating room with single-engine, multi-engine, and instrument ratings.

“I have a fear of heights,” Jones confessed. “I cannot go to the edge of something and look over without starting to get that funny feeling in my stomach, but at one time I could take an acrobatic plane and spin it and roll it over and not feel a thing because I have control of the airplane. It’s really a control issue.”

For some 43 years now, he has surgically restored control to patients with all manner of joint problems in their knees and shoulders. As a former small-college basketball player, Jones liked sports medicine and helping injured athletes return to competition.

Read the full profile of Dr. Riley Jones in the August/September issue of Memphis Medical News here.