A memorial service will be held Friday at Dallas’ Church of the Incarnation for Dr. Adrian E. Flatt, a world-renowned hand surgeon and former chairman of the orthopedics department at Baylor University Medical Center. He died Oct. 14 at the age of 96.
Born and educated in England, Flatt came to the United States in the 1950s. He worked at New York’s Roosevelt Hospital and in New Orleans before beginning the first academic hand surgery unit in the United States at the University of Iowa.
There, Flatt taught and developed the hand-surgery department and won a number of awards. He then moved on to Yale University, where he was a clinical professor of orthopedics, before landing at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas as chairman of the department of orthopedics.
He served in that position from 1982 to 1992, when he retired from his clinical practice. He was named chief emeritus at Baylor’s George Truett James Orthopaedic Institute for his commitment to orthopedics. He also served as an instructor at UT Southwestern Medical School.
Over the years Flatt was widely recognized for his publications, books, and patents relating to the treatment of the hand. He was president of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and was honored as an International Pioneer of Hand Surgery.
He also won renown for his casting and bronze-coating of the hands of famous people. The Adrian E. Flatt, M.D., Hand Collection, located in the lobby of Baylor Dallas’ Truett Hospital, includes more than 120 pairs of cast-bronze hands belonging to such personalities. They range from U.S. presidents and Hollywood actors to Dallas sports figures like Roger Staubach and Mike Modano.
