Speaker 1: It's Kershaw Day at Dodgers Stadium for the first time
Speaker 1: this season. And a big reason why Clayton Kershaw is
Speaker 1: on the mound today is because of the greatest orthopedic
Speaker 1: surgeon in the world, and he is the Dodgers team physician.
Speaker 1: Everybody from William Shatner to Tom Brady to Kobe Bryant
Speaker 1: to Clayton Kershaw comes to see this man, and that
Speaker 1: is the great doctor Neil Elatrosh. Doctor Elatrosh, really special
Speaker 1: to have you on this day more than any other
Speaker 1: day in recent memory.
Speaker 2: Wow, David, I don't know how you can expect me
Speaker 2: to sit through that introduction.
Speaker 3: It's very, very generous.
Speaker 2: But I've been waiting for this day, probably as much
Speaker 2: more than anybody, maybe with the exception of Clayton.
Speaker 1: There's a great story recently in The New Yorker and
Speaker 1: it just describes the trust that you build with your patients.
Speaker 1: How much trust did you have to build with Clayton
Speaker 1: to be able to not only have them to your
Speaker 1: home the night before the surgery, but also for him
Speaker 1: to and trust you with his pitching future.
Speaker 2: I think that that you hit on the thing that's
Speaker 2: the main ingredient, that's absolutely necessary to take care of
Speaker 2: these kinds of athletes. And you know, really anybody to
Speaker 2: have a physician have somebody's health in their hands. I
Speaker 2: think that without trust, you know, the results never would
Speaker 2: reach their potential. So but that especially true for athletes
Speaker 2: and athletes at this level. I've noticed that that that's
Speaker 2: probably the most important ingredient is trust, and it goes
Speaker 2: both ways. I have to trust that, you know, he's
Speaker 2: going to give me all the information I need to
Speaker 2: take the best care of my can, and he obviously
Speaker 2: has to trust me that I'm going to do everything
Speaker 2: I need to do everything I can do to take
Speaker 2: as good a care of him as possible. You know,
Speaker 2: without it, nothing works well. With it, everything's possible.
Speaker 1: Why did you have him spend a night at your
Speaker 1: house the night before this surgery?
Speaker 3: Well, that was that was sort of simple.
Speaker 2: You know, he his family was already in Texas, he
Speaker 2: had so he had really no furniture. There was nothing
Speaker 2: in the house that would and so you know, I
Speaker 2: knew he wouldn't be comfortable there because it really wasn't
Speaker 2: the home that he and Ellen, you know, are used to,
Speaker 2: and so you know that there was no reason for
Speaker 2: me to have him get tucked in by some concierge
Speaker 2: at a hotel. And so I've been known to when
Speaker 2: there's people that have traveled in and they may not
Speaker 2: be professional athletes and maybe maybe be somebody that's traveled
Speaker 2: in doesn't really have a lot of support. The night before,
Speaker 2: the night after surgery, I surprised my wife and I
Speaker 2: bring home.
Speaker 3: A house guest.
Speaker 2: In this case, it happened to be Clayton, and there
Speaker 2: was no way I was gonna, you know, turn him
Speaker 2: loose to a hotel.
Speaker 3: No doubt.
Speaker 1: Doctor Neil Elatosh not only the best as far as
Speaker 1: orthopedic surgeons go in the world, but as you can tell,
Speaker 1: he cares about the people that are trusting him.
Speaker 3: You are one of one.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 3: He's one of one.
Speaker 1: Is this surgery for him to be able to be
Speaker 1: on the mound eight months later one of one.
Speaker 3: He's the first.
Speaker 2: One that I know of that is coming back to
Speaker 2: sports at this level with with this particular operation.
Speaker 3: To be able to do what we did, it.
Speaker 2: Had to be done arthroscopically for him to have a
Speaker 2: chance of being able to rehabit and get his motion back,
Speaker 2: to be able to give him a chance to play
Speaker 2: this year. And if we couldn't accomplish that, and it
Speaker 2: would have had to be done with a more invasive approach,
Speaker 2: we wouldn't be where we are. And the problem with
Speaker 2: this particular diagnosis is it's really exceedingly difficult. Some some
Speaker 2: think not possible to accomplish this arthroscopically, and but we
Speaker 2: know with newer technology and newer tools that were constantly
Speaker 2: working on to develop, I thought we had a reasonable chance.
Speaker 2: But you know, I don't know if I'm one of one.
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of very talented surgeons out there,
Speaker 2: but very few have the opportunity to to, you know,
Speaker 2: try to help somebody like Clayton Kershaw with an injury
Speaker 2: like this.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 2: I'm in that situation, and I you know, said a
Speaker 2: prayer before before the night before, and and uh, and
Speaker 2: I envisioned, you know what, what we possibly could get done,
Speaker 2: and and it.
Speaker 3: All worked out.
Speaker 2: So now it's just a matter of getting him back
Speaker 2: to the battle. You know that this is uh, he's
Speaker 2: been doing this all his life and and there's a
Speaker 2: lot of changes in the body that go along with
Speaker 2: that over the years. And you know, somebody like Clayton
Speaker 2: doesn't doesn't talk a lot about, you know, the things
Speaker 2: that they go through to be able to show up
Speaker 2: every spring and to be able to to go through
Speaker 2: a grueling one hundred and sixty two game schedule plus postseason,
Speaker 2: and and the Dodgers always ended up in the postseason.
Speaker 2: And we always rode Clayton. We rode him hard in September.
Speaker 2: In October, I was talking to Joe Tory the other
Speaker 2: day and he said, he said that that boy, you know,
Speaker 2: and Joe can say that because Joe's a bit older,
Speaker 2: but there's no disrespect back Joe.
Speaker 3: Joe loves Clayton.
Speaker 2: But he said that, would you know he went through
Speaker 2: a lot because you know, they we were always depending
Speaker 2: on him to be the great Clayton Kershaw multiple times
Speaker 2: in September and leading into the postseason when there's the
Speaker 2: most stress, and you know, he'll never he'll never talk
Speaker 2: about the difficulty and being able to to make it
Speaker 2: through that for as long as he has. But I've
Speaker 2: really come to have an enormous amount of respect. I'm
Speaker 2: very fond of him personally, but an enormous amount of
Speaker 2: respect for the for the man and the the athlete
Speaker 2: that he.
Speaker 1: Is as you go through this process with him. Is
Speaker 1: there something that that he found out about you and
Speaker 1: you found out about him during this process?
Speaker 2: Maybe what he found out about me was that that
Speaker 2: this is really all I know how to do to
Speaker 2: help somebody like him, and that he he was going
Speaker 2: to get to sleep in a in a bed that
Speaker 2: had baby girl in neon, neon, sign over and talk
Speaker 2: because it's my daughter's bedroom.
Speaker 3: But but I think that.
Speaker 2: We learned a lot about you know each other.
Speaker 3: And uh, as long as you can know.
Speaker 2: Somebody and think think that you know their story, there's
Speaker 2: nothing that gets it really focused and intimate, like when
Speaker 2: when you go through something like this as a surgeon
Speaker 2: and a and a patient and so I I just
Speaker 2: it it really you see these guys when they're at
Speaker 2: their most most vulnerable and and so you see the
Speaker 2: real real man, you know.
Speaker 1: Doctor Neil Elatrosh is our guest on Kershaw Day. Clayton
Speaker 1: Kershaw making his season debut this afternoon. When you come
Speaker 1: to the stadium on a day like today, how emotional
Speaker 1: will you when you see him warm up? Today?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I think that maybe that does does
Speaker 2: describe I will have a lot of emotion about it.
Speaker 2: I I I had those same emotions when when I
Speaker 2: saw Walker come back this year.
Speaker 3: But but you know, whenever.
Speaker 2: You go through something like this and you see what
Speaker 2: what they've done and the way they've gone about it,
Speaker 2: like like Clayton, you can't help but really feel the
Speaker 2: gravity and the and the emotion of the situation, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, watching him make the decision, well what he.
Speaker 3: Was going to do this year, and all he wanted,
Speaker 3: all he wanted to do.
Speaker 2: Was to make sure that he could live up to
Speaker 2: and fulfill what whatever a baseball contract would would want
Speaker 2: coming back on the other side to you know, what
Speaker 2: what his obligation was.
Speaker 3: And and I just I watched go through.
Speaker 2: It, and it was remarkable, you know, how much integrity
Speaker 2: he has. He's he's a hard worker, ultimate, ultimate professional.
Speaker 2: And it's been a real privilege too to see I've
Speaker 2: learned a lot from him. I've learned a lot from
Speaker 2: him about pitching things that I that I will carry
Speaker 2: through and be able to, you know, hopefully help other people.
Speaker 2: I already have used some of the knowledges I've gained
Speaker 2: from him and people like Walker, And so it's it's
Speaker 2: shaped and formed a lot of and informed a lot
Speaker 2: of my my thinking about how to take care of
Speaker 2: these guys. And but he's been a remarkable partner to
Speaker 2: go through this with.
Speaker 3: And he did all the work. I did a little surgery,
Speaker 3: he did all the work.
Speaker 1: All Right, Well, you're very humble and that is reflected
Speaker 1: in you still learning at this stage of your career. Kershaw,
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, Kobe, they were at the top their game.
Speaker 1: You never have to retire, right, doctor Niolo Trash. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of people that still need you in the world.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll help whoever I can, but I can't can't
Speaker 2: do can't do this forever. Yeah, but it's really I
Speaker 2: really can't been thirty four years or so that I've
Speaker 2: been doing it now. And if I would have been
Speaker 2: asked to write the script of how this was going
Speaker 2: to go and that I would have a chance to be,
Speaker 2: you know, trusted by some of these guys that you
Speaker 2: mentioned to take take care of them, never would have
Speaker 2: believed it in a million years. And so it's just
Speaker 2: it's been amazing, it's really been amazing.
Speaker 1: I know your mentor was doctor Frank Job. I'm sure
Speaker 1: he's very proud of what you've been able to accomplish
Speaker 1: and just how you've been able to carry on his
Speaker 1: legacy and take it to another level. And I think
Speaker 1: everybody that has ever met you or coming in contact
Speaker 1: with you certainly respects you, not only for what those
Speaker 1: magic hands can do, but obviously the big heart you
Speaker 1: have inside as well.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's interesting, thank you for saying that,
Speaker 2: you know, talk about magic hands. Frank Joe was the
Speaker 2: most beautiful surgeon I've ever seen. But but it's interesting
Speaker 2: you brought him up because I remember talking to him
Speaker 2: up in the press box about this young Clayton Kersher.
Speaker 2: I hadn't even met him yet, and he was telling
Speaker 2: me about this lefty that that is was looking amazing
Speaker 2: and that they're they really are chomping at the bit
Speaker 2: to get him up up here to the big leagues.
Speaker 2: And they were looking at dates in the calendar, and
Speaker 2: and Frank was one of those guys that was pushing
Speaker 2: back a little bit to have him be careful about
Speaker 2: about how quickly he was coming up, because he knew
Speaker 2: what happens to some of these young phenoms when they
Speaker 2: when they come up young, it's like the horses out
Speaker 2: of the gate, and you can never get it back
Speaker 2: in the gate. It's the then it's the max intensity
Speaker 2: and the volume that these that they're gonna pitch. And
Speaker 2: and Clayton was very young at the time, it was
Speaker 2: like two thousand and five, two thousand and six, somewhere
Speaker 2: in there. And and I remember Frank telling me, we
Speaker 2: just have to be really careful when you have a
Speaker 2: talent like this, you know, you have to let it mature,
Speaker 2: let it nurture it, and let it mature. And Frank
Speaker 2: was so smart, you know when it came to you know,
Speaker 2: sort of decisions like that. And I think that's why
Speaker 2: they included him so much. The O'Malleys, you know, had
Speaker 2: such a great experience with him over so long. They
Speaker 2: they really centered a lot of those decisions around Frank.
Speaker 3: And he was right, because you.
Speaker 2: Know, he's one of the greatest left handers I've ever
Speaker 2: seen in my life.
Speaker 1: Doctor Latrosh, thanks a lot for the time, no doubt,
Speaker 1: right next to Ellen and the kids, you are going
Speaker 1: to be very proud and maybe the biggest smile at
Speaker 1: Dodger Stadium, right next to them on Clayton Kershaw's season debut.
Speaker 2: Thanks David, It's an honor privilege to work with him
Speaker 2: and to talk to you.
Speaker 3: Thank you,