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Award: Physician Award honors physicians whose performance is considered exemplary by patients and peers.Winner: Dr. Coleman ArnoldAccomplishment: As a surgeon, educator and volunteer, Arnold has provided health care for thousands of patients, including many he has served on volunteer mission trips to Third World countries, and help teach many other surgeons as a teacher to many future doctors.
When Chattanooga surgeon Coleman Arnold returns to Tennessee after a medical mission trip to Guatemala or Papua New Guinea, everyday aggravations seem to melt away.
"I don't fuss at stoplights for at least a week," says Dr. Arnold, of University Surgical Associates on E. 3rd Street. "I'm just happy to have running water, air conditioning, and to not have to apply bug spray 24 hours a day."
For years, Arnold has joined other physicians in travels to Third World nations where advanced medical care is either unavailable or too expensive for the masses. In Papua New Guinea, on an island in the Southwest Pacific near Australia, Arnold and other doctors trek through jungle terrain carrying medical supplies to perform gall bladder surgeries, tumor extractions and hysterectomies. "We have to take in every sponge, every pill," Arnold explains.
Guatemala, another of Arnold's mission destinations, has a large medical infrastructure, but many rural citizens of the Central American country are too impoverished to pay for care, he says. Most of the health-care facilities are clustered in big cities, which are often dotted with security forces carrying automatic weapons, he said.
"There is just no money there (in Guatemala)," he says. "Even some of the doctors have to get second jobs as taxi drivers."
Arnold deflects praise for his selection as a Champion of Health Care. "A lot of people do more," he says. "I guess I'm just the oldest."
At 69, Arnold is still active as a physician, volunteer and teacher. He began his practice here in 1977, and joined University Surgical Associates two decades later. He is the son of the late Ira Lee Arnold, a well-known Chattanooga eye doctor who was the founder of the Chattanooga Opthalmological Association, which was responsible for establishing the Miller Eye Center at Erlanger hospital. The elder Dr. Arnold was also a early proponent of Erlanger's partnership with the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.
Today, following in his father's footsteps, Coleman Arnold is an assistant professor with the UT College of Medicine residency program here, helping aspiring surgeons launch their careers. Former students sometimes call him in the middle of the night to seek advice on especially difficult cases, he says.
"As somebody once told me: If you are a good teacher, your students will eventually surpass you," Arnold says.
Arnold's nurse, Monica Rehring has watched him interact with surgery residents for several years. "He has a sweet relationship with the residents," she said. "He gives them a hard time, but he makes them think. They think a lot of him."
And so do patients, apparently. Arnold says he still gets birthday cards from people he performed surgery on 20 years ago.
On Tuesdays, Arnold works at local health clinic which provides free medical services to those who can't afford care. He also performs about 10 no-cost surgeries a year through referrals from the Medical Society of Chattanooga.
Arnold's wife Jeanie is a nurse who sometimes accompanies him on mission trips. They have four adult children: three sons, Justin, Kevin and Nathan; and a daughter, Alison Bryan.
Arnold received an undergraduate degree from Furman University and took his medical training at the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis. He is board certified through the American Board of Surgery and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He specializes in general and laparoscopic surgery.