March 2021 – Beyond Plastic MD

The year was 1984. I was a chief resident in general surgery at the US Naval Hospital, Oakland, CA. I and my two co-residents were finishing the last of five years of training in general surgery. By now, we were functioning as nearly independent surgeons, operating on our own patients and helping train the residents behind us. We were allowed to operate without an attending surgeon present most of the time, but were expected to request assistance if we needed it on complex or difficult cases. By this time, we had enough knowledge and surgical experience to feel fairly confident in our capabilities.

Surgery is a strange amalgam of confidence coupled with humility. Confidence is a must in a profession where you are cutting people open as a matter of routine. Humility is equally important. People and the human body are simply too complex to be approached without some trepidation and with great respect. There has to be a balance, however. The over-confident surgeon is just as dangerous as the overly-timid one.

One of the traditions of our program, indeed, of most surgical training programs, was to send off the graduating residents with a banquet. It was attended by all of the residents and attending surgeons and their spouses. The graduates were toasted and roasted in equal measure in funny and, sometimes, embarrassing ways. For that evening, the general surgery service at the hospital was covered for emergencies by one of the other surgery services so that we all could attend and the day’s surgery schedule was shortened as well. For the graduating residents, it marked the transition from resident to attending surgeon and was highly anticipated.

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Meet Dr. Rick Bosshardt

Dr. Bosshardt attended the Leonard Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami, graduating in 1978. He completed a general surgery residency at the United States Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. His residency term was interrupted from 1979-80 when he served as medical officer aboard the USS Wabash and was deployed to the Western Pacific with an aircraft carrier task force. During that year, the Wabash was involved in the rescue of Vietnamese boat people and was part of operations to end the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980. The USS Wabash crew received several decorations for this deployment, including the Meritorious Unit Commendation. Upon completion of his training, Dr. Bosshardt served as a general surgeon at the United States Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan from 1984-87. During this time, he obtained his board certification from the American Board of Surgery. While in Okinawa, Dr. Bosshardt applied, and was accepted, for residency training in plastic surgery under world-renowned plastic surgeon, D. Ralph Millard, Jr., M.D., at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center in Miami, Florida. He was honorably discharged from the Navy with the rank of Commander in 1987 and completed his plastic surgery training in Miami from 1987-89. Dr. Bosshardt arrived in Lake County in July of 1989 as the first plastic surgeon in the county. He obtained lifetime certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery in 1991. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Since starting in private practice, Dr. Bosshardt has participated regularly in overseas medical missions to provide reconstructive surgery to children with cleft lip, cleft palate. and other problems. His travels have taken him to the Philippines, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, the West Bank, and Mexico. Dr. Bosshardt performs both cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery in his practice, which has grown to two surgeons working out of a modern facility that houses the only state licensed private surgical suite in Central Florida dedicated exclusively to plastic surgery. He has privileges at Advent Health Waterman and University of Florida Leesburg Hospital.