Combined with the expertise and experience of orthopedic surgeons Dr. Dirk Gouge and Dr. Thomas Herschmiller, the CORI surgical system allows the surgeons to make more accurate cuts, leading to more even soft tissue balance and, ultimately, better patient outcomes in the form of less pain and increased range of motion.
A graduate of Port Angeles High School, Dr. Gouge has been serving residents of the Olympic Peninsula since 1998, providing skilled orthopedic surgery at Olympic Medical Center.
Dr. Gouge sees patients who want to play recreational sports or work in their garden or explore the Olympic Peninsula, but pain in their knee from arthritis is keeping them from doing so. For many of those individuals, knee replacement can help them return to those physical activities without the pain they were experiencing.
“I have patients that want to get back to playing golf and hiking and snow skiing and waterskiing and playing tennis…pickleball is huge around here,” Dr. Gouge says. “That’s why they do this [knee replacement] so that they can get back to those things that they want to do everyday that they’ve had to stop doing because their knee hurts too much…One of the biggest things about knee replacement is trying to get people back to doing those activities that they want to do.”
Dr. Gouge completed medical school at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (Pomona, CA) before an internship and residency at Botsford General Hospital (Farmington Hills, MI).
Dr. Herschmiller joined OMC in 2016 following education and training at prestigious institutions. After his undergraduate studies at Princeton University, he earned his medical degree from the University of Sydney in Australia, with honors.
Dr. Herschmiller, who grew up on Vancouver Island, then performed his internship and residency at Duke University Medical Center, where he held the distinguished position of chief resident from 2013-14. Prior to joining OMC, he completed a yearlong fellowship in orthopedic adult reconstruction at Columbia University Center for Hip and Knee Replacement in New York City.
When patients decide knee replacement is right for them, Dr. Herschmiller generally sees those individuals return to their previous level of activity after surgery.
“A knee replacement surgery is, for some people, a new lease on life,” Dr. Herschmiller says. “It enables you to get out and do the things that you want to be able to do more comfortably without pain.”
Dr. Herschmiller is a former Olympic athlete, having competed at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where he won a silver medal in rowing.
Patients who undergo knee replacement surgery at Olympic Medical Center work with a health care team to prepare for a successful surgery and recovery.