WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Doctors Jordan and Zachary Grabel are father and son, and have performed dozens of spine surgeries side by side at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
No two surgeries are the same, and they don’t perform every single one together; but, when they do, they’re laser-focused.
“We’re just very engrossed in the work,” Jordan said. “That’s all we’re thinking about… the work we’re doing at that point. After the operation we become father and son again. During the surgery, we just work like any two surgeons.”
Jordan, who is chief of surgery at Good Samaritan Medical Center, has been a practicing neurosurgeon in Palm Beach County for more than 25 years. He earned his medical degree from Brown University in Providence, R.I., and received residency training in general surgery and neurological surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center and School of Medicine in New York City.
His son, Zachary, always knew medicine was for him and he looked up to his father.
Like his father, he earned his medical degree from Brown University and he completed his orthopedic surgery residency at Emory University in Atlanta.
He is chief of orthopedic spine surgery at Good Samaritan Medical Center.
Zachary knew he wanted to be in the operating room, performing surgeries, but he wasn’t sure of what specialty to pursue.
He decided to follow his dad’s footsteps.
“It just so happened he does spine surgery, it was nice because then we could talk about cases and what not,” Zachary said.
He said he’s still learning from his dad, while also teaching him a thing or two about new techniques he’s learned along the way.
“it works out nicely for me because obviously he’s been doing this a long time so he has a lot of expertise in certain areas,” he said. “In those areas, I value his opinion. There are some newer techniques where I say ‘I think we should do it this way.’ He seems to value my opinion and it ends up working well.”
Jordan said he appreciates what his son has brought into the practice, like new techniques and skills to work with new materials and tools. He’s proud to share the operating room with his son.
“It’s always great when you have a son or any child who wants to do somewhat what you do professionally,” he said. “He had an early interest in medicine but I really had no idea until the last number of years that our paths would overlap this closely in the surgeries that we did.”