Some might say it was natural for Andrew Kirkpatrick to become a doctor. After all, he grew up around doctors.
“I have always been interested in medicine because I come from a medical family,” he says. “My dad is a physician in Appleton and I have other relatives who are physicians as well.”
Still, it wasn’t until Kirkpatrick met an orthopedic surgeon as a biology major at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, that he would begin to plot his medical career path in earnest.
“I met an orthopedic surgeon who took me on a couple of medical mission trips to South America – Lima, Peru, specifically,” he says. “I assisted him in some surgeries and it opened up the door to orthopedics. I was able to see what orthopedics was all about and how I could help someone with a specific problem.”
Repeat medical mission trips further reinforced Kirkpatrick’s decision to study orthopedics, particularly, after he helped several doctors from his church build a free clinic in Peru and treat hundreds of patients. He knew orthopedic surgery was his calling.
Kirkpatrick attended medical school at the Milwaukee Medical College of Wisconsin and interned at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He completed his orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and was fellowship trained in hand and upper extremity surgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Today, Kirkpatrick is a hand surgeon with Orthopedics & Sports Medicine BayCare Clinic.
“My favorite part about my job is seeing someone satisfied with their functionality and pain relief several weeks or months after we have performed a surgery, injection or therapy,” he says.
In his free time, Kirkpatrick plays golf, hunts, hikes, goes fishing and spends quality time with his wife, his parents and Walker, a Doberman Pinscher.