As a neurosurgeon, Dr. Don Penney is enjoying a remarkable career. He once restored a mother’s sight so she could watch her baby daughter grow. He pioneered a technique to treat brain tumors that gave a father several extra years with his wife and sons. And he protected a young stroke victim’s brain from swelling by removing the top of her skull, helping her heal in time for high school graduation.
But Dr. Penney is not only a neurosurgeon. He is board-certified in emergency medicine, practicing in the famous Cook County Hospital on which the show “E.R.” was based. He consults with the FBI and is a member of its hostage rescue squad. He is a full professor and is passionate about teaching. He is an avid photographer who always takes a camera in his operating room and music lover with more than 25 guitars.
Dr. Penney recently moved to Casper to join the team at Wyoming Brain and Spine Associates and Wyoming Medical Center. The Pulse recently sat down with Dr. Penney for a two-part interview about his career and some of his most memorable cases.
The Pulse: Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up and what got you interested in medicine?
Dr. Penney: I came from a medical family. I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. My mom was a nurse, and my dad was an engineer at a hospital. He worked in the power house and was responsible for all the mechanics of the hospital – from the furnaces down to the elevators.
At 16, I got my first job and went to work in a hospital. Right from the very beginning I was exposed to medicine. It had always been my dream to go into medicine.
The Pulse: We understand you had a pretty serious illness growing up which required hospitalization. Did that pique your interest, do you think?
Dr. Penney: I played a lot of hockey when I was young, what Canadian doesn’t? I lost a lot of teeth. I got kicked once in a scrimmage and ended up having osteomyelitis of the left leg.
The Pulse: What is that?
Dr. Penney: It’s a deep-seated infection in the bone. I spent six weeks in the hospital and had to have (intravenous) and (intramuscular) antibiotics. They did not have ports and PICC lines and things like that in those days. The disappointment about that whole thing was that one time the Beatles came to Toronto – which I had tickets for – and I missed it. That broke my heart.
Anyway, a long story short, it was really bad exposure to medicine. I think it kind of firmed up what I wanted to do.
The Pulse: You’re a neurosurgeon, which is already pretty impressive to us, but you’re also board certified in emergency medicine. Why the two disciplines?
Dr. Penney: All through my medical school – and even through my neurosurgery – I was interested in trauma. I always had this fixation on Cook County Hospital [a Level 1 Trauma Center in Chicago with one of the most respected emergency rooms in the country]. This predated the television show “E.R.”
I thought, what better place to get your feet wet than in Cook County where there is so much trauma? When I finished my neurosurgery fellowship, I moved to Chicago to the University of Illinois and Cook County Hospital. I should say, too, that part of my training in my internship was in emergency medicine. I really loved emergency medicine, and I thought how can I put the two together?
The Pulse: What is it you love about emergency medicine?
Dr. Penney: I love medicine and being a full doctor. To give you an example, when I was in my residency training, I remember rounding with my attending. If there was a neuro problem, of course, the attending would address it. If they had any other kind of medical problem, they kind of delegated it to other specialists. I refused to give up the whole aspect of the patient.
Emergency medicine allowed me to keep all the skills. So, when I finished my residency training, before I moved to Chicago and awaiting licensing, I did a year of emergency medicine. I was then able to qualify to take my boards in emergency medicine.
The Pulse: Will you be treating trauma cases at Wyoming Medical Center?
Dr. Penney: Yes. I have already applied for privileges here. When you speak a language, you have to speak it or you lose it. I do not want to lose my emergency training and my experience.
The Pulse: In 1993, after several years in Chicago, you moved to Georgia to open your own practice and join the medical staff at Gwinnett Medical Center near Atlanta. Why did you make that move?
Dr. Penney: Gwinnett was in desperate need of a neurosurgeon. They only had one, and they were on trauma bypass 53 percent of the time. They were getting a lot of bad press because paramedics/EMS were picking up head injury patients and having to transport them down to Grady (Memorial Hospital), which is the equivalent to Cook County but in Atlanta. As a result, they felt, “Why do we have a community hospital and not have a neurosurgeon?” So they recruited me to Atlanta.
The Pulse: What about the opportunity interested you?
Dr. Penney: It was trauma. And, where I was going, if you look at the demographics of 1993, the fastest growing county in the United States was Gwinnett County. There was a huge population, and there was a lot of trauma. A lot of it was highway – not the gun and knife stuff that I was dealing with in Chicago.
Plus, the weather was a draw. To be able to leave Chicago, the Windy City, and be able to go to Georgia, which as you know can be nice from a weather aspect.
The Pulse: Haha. You must not have heard about Casper’s wind! Why relocate to another city known for its blistery winters?
Dr. Penney: What brought me here is that at this point in time, my wife and I are empty-nesters. Our youngest daughter is 20 and is a junior at Georgia State, living on campus. We had the freedom to do this. I am a photographer, and the state of Wyoming is beautiful.
With the FBI, I have been up to Montana, Salt Lake City, and Wyoming appealed to me as far as photography. And Wyoming Medical Center is kind of similar to the situation in Gwinnett. I had already done the same thing in Atlanta when I joined them. There was one other neurosurgeon, so I was able to kind of rebuild the program, up until the point that I left.
The Pulse: So, yes, one of your goals is to rebuild the neurosurgery program at Wyoming Medical Center. What new services will you be able to bring to Wyoming patients?
Dr. Penney: From my visits here, and meetings with many different types of physicians, I think we really have not had somebody here on a steady basis since Dr. Sramek and Dr. Hollis left. I feel we have been pinch-hitting with locums. I think that one of my goals to try and stabilize things, to try to build up the practice [at Wyoming Brain and Spine Associates].
I think I will see a significant amount of trauma, but I’ll also build up the spine practice and try to encourage folks within the state – not just the city of Casper – to get their care here. I want to try to stop some of the bleeding that goes on into neighboring states like Colorado or Utah or Montana.
We are building this program for this institution. When I got to Atlanta, the hospital was in the newspaper negatively about twice a month because of the bypassing. The trauma coordinator and I went to every fire station in the county and brought lunch. I told them, “Hey, I am here. This is over, no more of this bypass stuff.” I kind of bonded with them, and from that point forward it put out the fires.
This was important because the hospital, as you know, is supported by the community. If the community is not happy with you, it can be a disaster. What I am trying to do here is to let people know we are rebuilding here. I think we need to establish ourselves. We need to establish that we are good and we have excellent results here. The outcomes will speak for themselves. I have already talked with the other neurosurgeon that is coming here. He sounds excellent and has great background. I am looking forward to him joining me and doing what we do with a dual approach.
The Pulse: We understand that you are a health consultant for the FBI and a member of the FBI’s hostage rescue squad. Tell us about this relationship.
Dr. Penney: In private practice, 70 percent of your business as a neurosurgeon is spine, 30 percent is cranial – brain tumors, hemorrhages, etc. Over the past 17 years in Atlanta, I continued to build a spine practice. As a result, I was considered the incumbent, in other words, the go-to guy for the FBI.
The Pulse: You mean you were treating the agents?
Dr. Penney: Agents, hostage rescue teams. The FBI in Atlanta came to me. I did their spine surgeries there and sent them back to Quantico.
Because I am credentialed with the FBI – which is something I did after 9/11 – once they know there is someone out there who is one of the group, there is a trust bestowed on you. That’s my interpretation. Those ties only strengthened, as I was deployed many times as a member of the Hostage Rescue Team out of Quantico. There was a point when I was going to Quantico once every two months.
The Pulse: Will you be able to continue your FBI relationship from Casper?
Dr. Penney: I had lunch just last week with the director of the whole southeast United States – Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana – and he has already talked to the Denver office that oversees Wyoming. He has already put the word out that I am out here.
In my practice I have a strong association with law enforcement. Because of that background, and because I have a son who is the assistant district attorney in Savannah, Georgia, I have my connections through all of that. They are a loyal group. Once you operate on one of them, or you see one of them, they tend to come back in and they tend to refer other people.
The Pulse: Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us today. Before we go, is there anything else you think readers should know about you?
Dr. Penney: I want to become part of the Casper community. I want to be a supporter of this city. I am going to be involved in Rotary – I have been in Rotary for about 17 years. I am going to join a church here in town.
I am here to stay, and I am here to become part of the community. I want to grow here. Two of my kids are coming for Christmas in our little apartment. We hope to buy a house eventually and become a full-fledge Casper family.
Dr. Don Penney, M.D.
Family: He and his wife have four grown children.
Education: Dr. Penney attended medical school at McMaster University in Montreal, Canada and completed a surgery internship at Montreal General Hospital, McGill University. He completed his residency and fellowship at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University.
Experience: Trained in and practiced emergency medicine at the University of Illinois and Cook County Hospital in Chicago and joined the teaching staff as an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery. He ran a solo practice in Atlanta, Ga., for 17 years where he was also a full professor of emergency medicine at Medical College of Georgia, Augusta. In 2006, he helped establish the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Georgia Chapter where he directed the neuroscience program. He has authored numerous chapters in textbooks and scientific papers in addition to delivering multiple national lectures for the American College of Emergency Medicine.
Practice:Wyoming Brain & Spine Associates, (307) 266-2222
1020 E. Second St., Suite 200, Casper, WY 82601.
Meet our Docs is an occasional series introducing the physicians of Wyoming Medical Center. Click here for interviews.
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