A Personal Remembrance of Colonel John A. Feagin Jr MD (1934-2019)

Colonel John A. Feagin Jr MD, Association of Bone and Joint Surgeon Emeritus Member, internationally renowned knee and sports medicine surgeon, and the first West Point graduate to attend medical school while on active duty [3], died on September 1, 2019 at the age of 85.

Colonel John A. Feagin Jr. MD

In his remarkable life, John wore many hats. He was an educator, a mentor, a patient advocate, and a leader of several orthopaedic organizations, including President of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM; 1985-1986).

A prominent figure in orthopaedics, John was one of the first to note that “the [ACL] ligament is critical to the function of the knee in the young athlete” [2]. He wrote several articles and books on ligament injuries, including his treatise on managing knee ligaments, The Crucial Ligaments: Diagnosis and Treatment of Ligamentous Injuries about the Knee [1].

But for Winston J. Warme MD, a friend and colleague of John’s, one particular paper stands out. In 1976, John published a 5-year follow-up paper on his patients who underwent surgical repair for isolated tear of the ACL. Although his patients (64 cadets from the United States Military Academy) initially presented good results, the 5-year follow-up showed that repairing the ACL does not work. Seventeen of the 32 patients who were located and evaluated for follow-up had a reinjury after ACL repair. Fifteen noted deterioration of the knee since graduation from West Point, and 12 required a second surgical procedure [2].

“His willingness to admit that a simple repair was not sufficient allowed us to learn about bone tendon and bone ACL reconstruction,” Dr. Warme told CORR. “There are not that many examples of people who are willing to say, ‘I was wrong. There has to be a better way to preserve young people’s knees.’ It was a perfect example of John’s integrity.”

My first introduction to John was as a visiting lecturer at the Presidio Army Medical Center in San Francisco, CA, USA in the spring of 1977. I was instantly drawn to then-Lieutenant Colonel Feagin’s warm, soft spoken, self-possessed, engaging personality, and yes, his integrity as well. Later, I would learn of his West Point education and training, and his family’s devotion to the US Army service.

John A. Feagin Jr. was born into a military family on May 9, 1934 at Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio, TX, USA where his father, a West Point Graduate, was stationed at nearby Randolph Air Force Base. John’s mother, Katherine Feagin, a third generation Texan, cultivated John’s lifelong love of Texas. As a boy, he sold watermelons and ice on the banks of the Guadalupe River near the town of Hunt, TX, USA [4] about 75 miles northwest of San Antonio. As I became a close and observant friend of John’s, I could detect a trace of his once Texas upbringing.

In 1951, John was admitted to West Point Military Academy as one of the youngest in his class. While a student, he became a member of the NCAA Championship water polo team, the class treasurer, and a devoted Sunday school teacher. Upon graduation, he was selected as one of three cadets under a new military program offering an unpaid leave of absence [4] to attend Duke University Medical School. During his time at Duke, from 1957 to 1961, he met his wife-to-be Martha Bagley, then a Duke undergraduate student from Alabama. They married in 1959.

Following a 1-year internship at Tripler Army Hospital, in Honolulu, HI, USA, John started his orthopaedic surgical residency at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington DC. After fulfilling an active duty assignment in Vietnam as a member of the 85th Evacuation Unit in Qui Nhon, in what he later recalled to me as a “sobering and humbling experience,” John returned to West Point as an orthopaedic surgeon with a focus on sports medicine, where he performed a high volume of ACL surgery. In that setting, it fell upon John to learn quickly the finer points of those procedures, and elements of the critically important aftercare associated with them. He did so, seemingly with ease.

With his skills as a surgeon-educator, John quickly found himself recognized among the best in the field of sports medicine. It was at this time that he encountered and treated the injured point guard and captain of the Army basketball team, Mike Krzyzewski, which led to a lifetime friendship with the future Hall-of-Fame coach of the Duke University basketball team.

In the early 1970s, when Sir John Charnley developed and disseminated the concept of THA, American surgeons ventured to England to learn from the developer of this then-revolutionary procedure. Very few were granted such a prized personal visit. In 1972, Charnley selected John for a special 1-year tutorship in what John later described to me as an exceptional personal and educational experience.

After completing mentoring time with Charnley, John was assigned to the Presidio at San Francisco, CA, USA as a member of the orthopaedic teaching staff. There, he created a team focused on performing total hip replacements following Charnley’s exacting indications and technique.

In 1978, after a promotion to Colonel, John was reassigned to West Point as Chief of the Academy Hospital, a role which unfortunately allowed little time for patient care. John would often share with me that the personal aspect of care was more precious to him than the other elements of his job. Dr. Robert Derkash, past president of the ABJS, recalled how John’s true talent was in his ability to work with patients and peers.

“He was one of the kindest, most caring and humble people that I have ever met,” Dr. Derkash told CORR. “He treated everyone with respect and had a true moral compass.”

In 1979, John retired from the Army, where he had served so faithfully for 24 years.

The beauty of the snow-covered Wyoming Teton Mountains drew John, his wife Martha, and their three teenaged children to Jackson Hole. Now unburdened by the lack of military obligations, he found free time to build a private practice in his new outdoor-focused environs. John purchased a two-story building at the base of a ski resort, where he provided care for injured skiers, mountain climbers, and hikers.

Once again, John found himself confronted with a growing number of patients with lower extremity injuries, and his practice again was focused on patients with ACL injuries. Along with a busy practice, he was a physician for the Jackson Ski Patrol and the team physician for US Olympic Ski Team. John treated Andy Chambers, a local US Ski Team rookie, for a torn meniscus. Chambers described John as a “very quiet, gentle doctor” and a “rock star in the orthopaedic world.”

Even with his many duties, John still found time to develop a sports medicine fellowship at his private practice, funded at his personal expense.

Michael A. Parseghian MD joined John’s practice after completing his orthopaedic training, and soon looked to John as a mentor.

“The greatest lesson I learned from John was how to take care of the whole patient, which required patience, skill, and dedication,” Dr. Parseghian told CORR.

In 2009, in conjunction with Duke University Medical School, John established the Feagin Leadership Program, designed to “engage Duke medical school students, residents, and fellows in their own leadership journeys” [3].

“Dr. Feagin’s definition of leadership was doing the right thing, at the right time, and for the right reasons,” Joe Doty PhD, Executive Director of the Feagin Leadership Program told CORR. “He would recite that definition often and he truly believed it.”

Beyond orthopaedic surgery, John was a pilot who accumulated more than 5000 air hours of flying time while serving many small communities in Wyoming and adjacent Montana. An avid adventurer and outdoorsman like myself, John and his family, joined me and my 16-year-old son at the time in climbing Grand Teton, the highest mountain in Grand Teton National Park, in Northwest Wyoming. Because none of the Feagin family members had any prior experience in serious technical climbing, we all wisely enrolled in the Exum Climbing School located in Jackson Hole for a 2-day on-site climbing instruction that covered a wide range of skills that would be needed to summit the mountain. John and I, along with one of the guides, chose the least-challenging route to the summit, assisting one another by belay when exposure to falling was intimidating. After summiting first, the remaining group members gradually appeared, tired yet exalted over their first significant mountain accomplishment. Well, most were exalted. I remember John’s daughter, Nancy exclaiming to her Dad, “Why did we do this? I hate it!”

Today, Nancy Feagin is a leading international technical climber; she became only the 11^th American woman to ever reach the summit of Mt. Everest [3].

In 1999, a last remarkable adventure arose mysteriously in John’s mind; a flight to simulate Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 solo monoplane flight to Europe. Rather than a nonstop flight, his Cessna 172 would hop-scotch in a more northern route, allowing for frequent refueling of the planes’ expanded fuel capacity. His summertime destination was Kenya, Africa, where he would volunteer his medical expertise, despite the country’s political turmoil. Encountering a pilot familiar with small plane excursions into Africa, John was sternly advised to abort his journey because of the high potential for terrorism in the region. Undaunted, John completed his volunteer mission, but the return home would be just as harrowing. John was left with two options: Return home by commercial flight or (against all advice) return by piloting his plane while facing probable threatening headwinds and poor visibility. He decided to fly himself.

At times flying just below low cloud cover to prevent icing and no more than several hundred feet above heaving white capped, windblown waves, his most memorable white-knuckle moment began as he approached a barely visible Goose Bay, Newfoundland landing strip. After three circling passes, he landed safely with overwhelming elation.

John’s last years were spent with his professional associate and friend, Dr. Richard Steadman at his nationally recognized fellowship program and clinic in Vail, CO, USA [4].

John’s patient care and his devotion to his many friends, and the country that he served admirably for 22 years, will not soon be forgotten. He will be lovingly remembered by all who had the good fortune to cross his path.

He is survived by his first wife Martha, sons Randle (Melissa) Feagin, Robert (Susan Temple) Feagin and daughter Nancy (Jonathon Carpenter) Feagin. He leaves a sister, Katherine Jeter (Col. John R Jeter, USMA ’55), and many nieces and nephews.