Dr. David Altchek, Mets medical director and Tommy John surgeon, dead at age 68

NEW YORK AP Dr David Altchek who performed more than Tommy John surgeries and was the New York Mets longtime diagnostic director died Thursday He was His death was publicized by the Hospital for Special Surgery where he was co-chief emeritus Altchek informed associates last year he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor He was the Mets head association physician from - and healthcare director from - physician of the U S Davis Cup association from - and North American therapeutic director of the ATP Tour Altchek was co-chief of HSS s sports medicine and shoulder system from - While Dr Altchek s intelligence and innovations certainly benefited his patients and sports medicine in general his biggest impact was his warm friendly caring personality revealed Glenn S Fleisig biomechanics research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute Colleagues friends and patients all loved David and are thankful for the time we had with him A son of orthopedic surgeon Martin Altchek David attended Middletown High School in New York received his undergraduate degree at Columbia and his anatomical degree from Cornell University Curative College in He interned at The New York Hospital and became a resident at HSS where he had a fellowship under Dr Russell Warren HSS s surgeon in chief from - and a longtime company physician of the New York Giants My first Tommy John surgery was in and I did the procedure that Dr Jobe Dr Frank Jobe prescribed Altchek disclosed during a interview with The Associated Press It took hours and I was exhausted And I realized then that we had to do something about Tommy John surgery We had to make it a little bit easier Working with residents and fellows Altchek developed what was called a docking procedure and tested it on about elbows It worked and it worked amazingly well Altchek explained We really did not change it at all for -something years Altchek estimated last year he had performed more than Tommy John surgeries He was a preferred surgeon for the Tommy John procedure in modern years along with Texas Rangers physician Dr Keith Meister and Los Angeles Dodgers head company physician Dr Neal ElAttrache Part of Altchek s job was to reassure a contestant his baseball career was not over You tell them this is unfortunate but this is your MRI This is seemingly why it happened meaning you threw outside the envelope of your tissue quality he explained But we have a procedure that can repair your ligament and reconstruct it in a kind of belt suspenders way that once it heals the likelihood of you going back to pitching at the same level or above is Altchek received Columbia s John Jay Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement in He is survived by his wife the former Anne Salmson whom he married in sons Charles and Christopher and daughters Chloe and Sophie Charles is president of Major League Soccer s third-tier MLS Next Pro minor league and was the Ivy League men s soccer contestant of the year while at Harvard in and AP MLB https apnews com hub mlb Source