Dodgers medical staff remembers Dr. Lewis Yocum

Dr. Lewis Yocum didn’t work for the Dodgers in an official capacity, but the team’s medical staff felt as if it lost one of its own this week when the Angels announced that the famed orthopedic surgeon had passed away.

Yocum worked for the Angels for the last 36 years, but the Dodgers frequently solicited his opinion on medical matters.

Dodgers team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache was a colleague of the famed surgeon at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic.

“We would oftentimes help each other,” ElAttrache said. “That’s something I’m going to miss the most.”

Stan Conte, the Dodgers’ vice president of medical services, also described Yocum as being very generous with his knowledge. Conte said Yocum was the first person he called when the Dodgers hired him away from the San Francisco Giants to be their head trainer in October 2006.

“We sent a lot of players, as a lot of teams have, to him from San Francisco,” Conte said. “I knew he knew the situation in Los Angeles. He was very, very open to helping me and giving me advice about the medical systems down here and referrals. He was always very helpful.”

Conte said Yocum had an intense desire to elevate the field of sports medicine. Yocum was instrumental in starting the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society’s annual conference.

“It is one of the two biggest baseball conferences in the world,” Conte said. “It’s really dedicated to educating the athletic trainer in baseball.”

Yocum’s own education continued until the end of his life. He was part of a group that included Conte and ElAttrache that authored a study on Tommy John surgery. The results of the study are expected to be published in the next six months.

ElAttrache called Yocum “a voice of reason.” Conte agreed.

“He was very much a guy who would only do surgery as a last resort,” Conte said. “He believed a lot in conservative treatment.”

What made Yocum special was his ability to make medical decisions within a baseball context.

“He understood not only the players’ injuries, but where they were in their careers,” ElAttrache said.

Conte said, “It seems like a very easy thing to do, but it’s very difficult. He did it very naturally.”

ElAttrache believes Yocum deserves a place in baseball’s Hall of Fame, along with Dr. Frank Jobe and Dr. James Andrews.

“Those three guys are the three giants of baseball sports medicine,” ElAttrache said. “Those three guys, in our generation, have saved the careers of some of the country’s favorite players. All you have to do is go down the list of the players they got back out there. Imagine what the game would have been without these guys.”