By Linden Wilson
Mind Over Matter
Born into a broken home that included a mentally unstablebrmother, an abusive alcoholic father and an older brother who abused drugs, itbrseemed that David Rothbart was destined to follow the same unhappy path hisbrfamily members had fashioned. However, something special about David made himbrdifferent. During a parent-teacher conference in the first grade, his teacher,brMrs. Shavens, told his mom that 6-year-old David could achieve anything hebrwanted. That single moment changed his life. Now a Yale-educated, board-certifiedbrneurosurgeon and founder of two exemplary medical institutions, David lives abrlife he never imagined, made possible by his resilience, resolve and ability tobrtransform adversity into opportunity.
Challenging childhood
Growing up in Chicago, David knew other kids his age hadbrvery different lives. After school, they returned to stable homes full ofbrnormal family activities. David's home only offered volatile chaos that oftenbrresulted in him spending much of his time alone. When he was 11, David's motherbrtold him she and his father were getting divorced. He remembers what happenedbrnext with absolute clarity — two days later, his brother told him to pack hisbrbags and that his mother was going to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital.brDavid was then dropped off at the home of a family friend, where he happened tobrcatch the news. A story flashed across the TV screen, about a man and a boy whobrhad been murdered. It was David's uncle and cousin. Already shaken by hisbrimmediate family's troubles, David cried for 12 hours straight.
“That nightbrwas the hardest night of my life,” he says. “But even amidst the tears,brsomehow, I knew if I just survived that one night, I would be okay. I keptbrsaying to myself that there had to be a reason for all of this. Call it fate orbrdestiny, but I believed that there was a purpose for me going through all ofbrthat.”
With hisbrmother hospitalized and brother gone, David went back to living with hisbrfather, whom he saw only a few hours a week. David cooked his own meals, didbrhis own laundry and dedicated himself to his studies. It was then that hebrrealized that doing well in school and working hard was his sole ticket out ofbradversity.
“I mightbrnot have been the smartest kid in my class, but I was determined to be thebrhardest working,” he says.
David'sbrmother returned when he was 12, and he became her caregiver. Yet just one weekbrbefore his sophomore year of high school, he came home to discover she hadbrcommitted suicide. At her funeral, he says he didn't cry, relieved that herbrsuffering was over. After enduring escalating abuse from his fatherbr— mostly verbal but sometimes physical — 16-year-old David decided to movebrout, knowing that his current environment would prevent him from achieving whatbrhe was meant to accomplish. The family of his closest friend, David Richter,brtook him in, a decision David is forever grateful for.
“Therebrweren't a lot of options for where a 16-year-old kid could go out and survivebron their own,” he says. “Some of those places were not so pleasant. David'sbrparents asked me to come live with them, and I stayed with various parts of hisbrfamily over the years. Those are the people who I call my family to this day.”
A whole new world
David continued to support himself through variousbrafter-school jobs, which allowed him to save enough money to attend thebrUniversity of Illinois. After graduation, he entered the university's medicalbrschool. As part of his neurosurgery residency, David completed a year ofbrgeneral surgery internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
One day, while treating a youngbrgirl with a gunshot wound to the head, David was stabbed by a man in thebrhospital looking for drugs. Although his wound healed successfully, hisbrdetermination was once again tested as he willed himself to survive. At thebrsame time, the medical school was facing a significant shakeup — many of thebrprofessors David admired began leaving, followed by his chairman. Rattled bybrthese events, David briefly considered a change in career before ultimatelybrdeciding to continue pursuing his goal to become a neurosurgeon.
Taking a leap of faith, he chose tobrapply for the one available position at Yale's medical school. (About 130brneurosurgery positions at various schools become available each year, withbrthousands applying from across the country.) When he was accepted, he couldbrhardly believe it.
“I wasbrpretty unfamiliar with the ivy league world of Yale,” he says. “I wasn'tbrstudent council president, and I wasn't a debate champion. I was a kid who wasbrworking 40 hours a week trying to scrape together enough money to attend abrstate university, and that is not your typical Yale profile.”
Not onlybrdid David receive an extraordinary education at the prestigious university — hebralso met Juan Bartolomei, a fellow resident whom one day would become abrfounding partner at Spine Team Texas, and a nurse named Laura, who would becomebrhis wife. After completing his residency at Yale, David went on to complete abrfellowship at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, serve as an associatebrprofessor of neurosurgery at Rush College of Medicine in Chicago and practicebrat the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery.
While in Chicago in the late 1990s,brhe began to take notice of how fragmented the spine-care model was and howbrpatients often experience a great deal of frustration.
“I was alsobrfrustrated as a spine care provider that I couldn't control all aspects of thebrquality of care my patients were receiving,” David says. “Many of them hadbrchallenging issues, but even if they don't, they deserve optimal care no matterbrwho they are. I began developing the concept of a true multidisciplinarybrapproach for spine care and the idea that patients should avoid surgerybrwhenever possible.”
A few yearsbrlater, David was recruited to Texas to serve as the medical director ofbrneurosurgery for two large area hospitals in the Metroplex, but he always keptbrhis spine care plan in the back of his mind. Finally, in 2004, the man whobrspent most of his life overcoming unimaginable obstacles achieved his dream, partneringbrwith Texas Health Resources to found both Texas Health Harris MethodistbrHospital Southlake and his own multidisciplinary spine practice, Spine TeambrTexas.
Success in Southlake
Southlake became David's number one location for thebrhospital and Spine Team Texas when, after several years living in Dallas, hebrrealized the affluent suburb was a major growth area with a great patientbrpopulation.
“I lovebrtaking care of the people in Southlake,” he says. ““One of the biggest things Ibrlove about this area is the motivated patients who want to get better but alsobrwant to stay better and work hard at it. This is the best place to practicebrmedicine in the country — we have a Metroplex that is one of thebrfastest-growing places in the country, and we have an economy that withstoodbrthe recession better than any other metropolitan area. I don't think we couldbrhave picked a better area.”
In the past nine years, Spine TeambrTexas — with Juan Bartolomei as a founding partner — has grown beyond David'sbrwildest dreams, from a staff of 14 people to 14 doctors and approximately 150bremployees in three full-time locations (Southlake, Rockwall and FortbrWorth-Alliance).
“What we'vebrcreated here is a seamless experience where the patient is surrounded bybrexcellence, and I'm not talking about just the physicians,” he explains. “I'mbrtalking about every point of contact for the patient. Whether they're visitingbrthe hospital or Spine Team Texas, they are met with a smile by someone whobrcares about that person not as a case but as a person. It's very important tobrme that the culture of all our locations is really focused on the patientbrexperience.”
All threebrSpine Team Texas facilities and Texas Health Southlake have become verybrsuccessful over the years. Contributing to that success are Traci Bernard,brpresident of Texas Health Southlake who was previously the vice president ofbrclinical support and operations at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Grapevine,bras well as Mark Hood, CEO of Spine Team Texas who is a former president of BaylorbrGrapevine. David attests that Traci and Mark each embody a culture ofbrexcellence that has translated well in the leadership of Texas Health Southlakebrand Spine Team Texas. In fact, Texas Health Southlake receives numerousbraccolades that often include No. 1 Best Company to Work for in Texas, BestbrPlace to Work in Healthcare and Best ER. David was recently named a 2013 AnnualbrSpine Leadership recipient by Becker'sbrSpine Review as a leader in business and the spine industry, but he admitsbrpersonal awards pale in comparison to the recognition the hospital and SpinebrTeam Texas receive.
“Those arebrwhat resonate with me because it kind of ties back to my story,” David says. “Ibrget a lot of credit, but there were a lot of people who helped me along thebrway. Oftentimes, you think of these big, major things someone does, but itbrreally wasn't like that. It was a series of small to medium-size acts ofbrkindness people offered to me that changed me and gave me this opportunity. IfbrI hear someone say, ‘Oh, I'm just the person who does blank,' that conversationbrstops right then and there, because they're notjust the person who does that. They are a critical piece of the puzzle, andbrthey have to recognize it.”
The power of kindness
Although the healthcare industry is currently facing manybrchallenges, David says Spine Team Texas is thriving in spite of the healthcarebrclimate because he applies a certain mantra to his practice: Where there isbrchaos, there is opportunity. He also applies the phrase to his own life andbruses it as he and Laura raise their two sons, ages 16 and 13.
“I tellbrthem all the time about the fact that they are going to stumble, and they arebrgoing to fall, but that's part of life,” David says. “The measure of a personbris not what they did to stumble or fall, it's what they did to pick themselvesbrup, to not repeat that and to make themselves a better person because of it.”
David'sbr16-year-old son is already showing an interest in medicine, having spent a daybrin the OR at the hospital this year as part of a mentoring program that allowsbrstudents to gain exposure to clinical medicine. However, David says he willbrneither dissuade nor persuade his son to pursue medicine — he just wants him tobrdo something he's happy with.
If itbrhadn't been for Mrs. Shavens' happy and encouraging words David heard when hebrwas merely 6 years old, he's not sure he would have ended up where he is today.brIt was her kindness, the kindness of his best friend David Richter, thebrfriendships he formed in medical school and the loving relationship with hisbrwife that helped carry David from struggle to success.
“In firstbrgrade, I wanted to become a surgeon,” he says. “I'm not exactly certain why —brprobably because I like to identify a problem, develop a plan, fix it and movebron. But becoming a doctor ended up being a two-pronged aspect of my life. Itbrwas a goal of something I wanted to do, but it also ended up saving my life.brOvercoming all of those challenges, while difficult along the way, taught me abrlot of valuable lessons. No matter what the obstacles are, they are neverbrinsurmountable.”
Thebrphysicians on the medical staff of Texas Health Harris Methodist HospitalbrSouthlake are independent practitioners and not employees or agents of thebrhospital.
David Rothbart, MD, Medical Director &brFounder of Spine Team Texas. Juan Bartolomei, MD, Co-Founder of Spine TeambrTexas.