Miscellany - 'Trinidad' Tells the Story of a Pioneering Surgeon

[Butterfly]

Miscellany - 'Trinidad' Tells the Story of a Pioneering Surgeon
June 17, 2010
by Jay Randel


http://www.campkc.com/campkc-content.php?Page_ID=1494


In 1954, Dr. Stanley Biber came to town. A former rabbinical student who had opted to study medicine over the Torah, Biber was finishing out his enlistment in the Army at Fort Carson, Colo., when he was offered a position in the coal-mining town of Trinidad at the United Mine Workers' health clinic.

Biber accepted this new post that was, no doubt, radically different from his preceding job as chief surgeon of the MASH unit in the Korean War.

Biber was a young, brazen doctor, and no job he did would be ordinary. Known among his peers for once performing 37 surgeries before collapsing from exhaustion, Biber was tough and determined. By hiring Biber, the United Mine Workers unwittingly helped to create social change and advance the United States' position in the sexual-reassignment surgery international market.