MURRAY -- A large floral arrangement marks the reserved spot outside The Orthopedic Surgical Hospital where Lonnie and Sally Paulos parked every morning, day in and day out.
Inside the hospital, which Paulos, an internationally renowned orthopedic surgeon co-founded nearly a decade ago, another wreath dominates the lobby. Sally Paulos, 51, died July 24 in a truck-motorcycle collision in Rich County that left her 53-year-old husband in serious condition with numerous internal and orthopedic injuries.Paulos, who is expected to make a full recovery, was released from the hospital Tuesday.
TOSH, as the hospital is generally known, has 200 employees, including 10 orthopedic surgeons, two primary care phy- sicians and four physicians who are doing training fellowships. They are still reeling from the loss. Sally Paulos had managed Lonnie Paulos' office since the hospital opened in the fall of 1991. Her daughter also works in his office.
"We're a small group here and we all know each other and care about each other," said Dr. Charles Beck, an orthopedic surgeon who came to Utah to study orthopedic surgery under Paulos and co-founder Dr. Thomas Rosenberg and stayed on as a partner.
Paulos typically sees "well over 100 patients a week," Beck said. Staffers spent last week calling patients, who were told they could be rescheduled with another doctor at TOSH, leave TOSH or wait a while for Paulos' return. Those requiring immediate care were scheduled with another orthopedist. But a "vast majority" of Paulos' patients opted to wait for his recovery, Beck said.
With the accident, surgeries dropped last week by 35 to 40 percent, Beck estimated. "We were all still in recovery mode and patients have been very understanding, by and large."
Some of those same patients -- as well as the Paulos' co-workers and friends -- have also established a college fund for Sally Paulos' grandchildren. She had hoped to be able to send them all to college.
The technical aspects of keeping the hospital running smoothly in spite of the loss has been relatively simple, according to TOSH administrative director Craig Wing. The emotional aspect is much harder.
"Sally didn't just work here. She was special, too," he said, describing her as upbeat and kind. "She's been here from the beginning."
The hospital Rosenberg and Paulos built in partnership with Intermountain Health Care (which now owns it, while the various physicians maintain private practices there) has become recognized around the world for its orthopedic work. Every year, they have to turn down applicants for the fellowships, where young physicians learn from some of the best orthopedic surgeons in the world. And Wing notes, only half joking, that he's become a tour guide because 10-20 visitors, some of them physicians from around the world, come through the clinic every week.
TOSH will be an "integral part of the 2002 Olympics medical coverage for Intermountain Health Care," Wing said.
Paulos pioneered many of the techniques and holds many patents on instruments used in orthopedic surgery. Earlier this year, while demonstrating a new surgical technique for a Deseret News reporter, he said, "We just keep trying to think of ways to make it work better. To make surgery easier and more effective."
The couple was riding a motorcycle on their way to the Fossil Butte area near Bear Lake. They've shared a love of fossils and this was to be just one more in a long line of interesting and entertaining excursions. Her daughter Natalie and one of the doctors doing a fellowship at the hospital followed them in the car. They'd had a leisurely lunch and were northbound on U-16 southeast of Bear Lake when a car in front of them veered suddenly out of the way. Apparently that car was avoiding a crash with a Toyota truck coming the other direction that had pulled out to pass a semi-trailer truck.
Paulos came within two feet of avoiding the collision, Wing said. "He did everything right. But it just wasn't enough."
While his colleagues expect Lonnie Paulos to return to work, no one's guessing how long it will be.
Funeral services for Sally Paulos will be held Saturday.