Modesto plastic surgeon nears 50 years in practice

In almost 49 years of practice, Dr. D. Gordon Anderson has never affected the flamboyant image of the Hollywood plastic surgeon to attract business.

He never dreamed of being a plastic surgeon for the rich and famous in Southern California, where he spent his teenage years.

Anderson was the city’s first fully trained plastic surgeon when he came to Modesto in 1967, and over the decades established a reputation for devotion to patients, surgical skills and taking care of the injured regardless of the pay.

Anderson, 83, said he sees no reason why he can’t complete 50 years of medical practice.

“I will quit one day,” he said last week. “I like what I do and am still able to do it, so why not?”

The Stanislaus Medical Society has named Anderson the physician of the year for 2016. The John Darroch Memorial Award goes to a physician exemplifying the highest standards of the medical profession and a commitment to education.

Anderson said that Northern San Joaquin Valley residents seeking cosmetic procedures – nose jobs, facelifts, Botox treatments and breast enhancements – make up one-third to half of his practice. He has an office and small surgery center on Coffee Road, just north of Downey High School, where he sees 20 to 25 patients a day.

“Everybody wants to look good,” Anderson said. “I have people in their 90s who worry about having (skin) cancer cut off because it will leave a scar.”

Besides the cash-paying patients who want cosmetic work, the other half of his practice is plastic surgery for patients who have a medical need. They include burn victims, people with facial lacerations suffered in car crashes or fights, breast reconstructions after cancer and women who need breast reductions to relieve shoulder or back pain.

Anderson has treated cowboys whose facial bones were shattered at the Oakdale Rodeo. While working on-call for local hospitals, he repaired 10 broken jaws in a single weekend. That was only a few years ago. Modesto is a more violent place today.

The surgeon is still on-call each month for emergency cases at Doctors Medical Center or Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, though Colette Nunes, his office manager, sometimes tells the doctor he needs to slow down.

“You cannot find a more devoted and caring doctor,” said Nunes, who has worked for him 11 years.

Dr. Kathleen Eve, a Modesto surgeon, said the medical society wanted to honor Anderson for his many years of service and commitment to medicine, but also for his excellent surgical skills.

“He just has the ability to do beautiful work,” Eve said. “He takes a lot of time. The nurses are lining up to get their face-lifts before he retires.”

For more than 25 years, Anna Bailey of Ceres has sent a gift or pastries to Anderson on birthdays and holidays. In 1988, Bailey was working in an egg-processing plant when her ponytail was sucked into a machine, tearing her scalp off.

After she survived the medical emergency, Anderson helped the 22-year-old woman deal with the living hell of the pain and loss of her hair.

Anderson created a new eyebrow for Bailey using natural hair. Over a five-year period, he rebuilt her scalp with skin grafts and expansion procedures, eventually giving her a full head of hair again.

Bailey said the physician was caring and honest, and most importantly gave her faith to work through the healing journey.

“He took pictures of the process, and told me to keep them, and continued taking pictures of the progress we made,” Bailey said.

About 10 years later, Anderson asked her to loan the book of photographs to encourage another patient who had been “scalped” in a vehicle crash.

“I had more than 20 surgeries with him,” Bailey said. “This man is awesome.”

Anderson teaches minor surgery at the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency clinics, showing family practice residents how to “cut and sew.” That makes him a volunteer faculty member of the UC Davis Medical School, which oversees the family practice residency based in Modesto.

The longtime surgeon said he will retire when his skills begin to fail.

“So far, I can keep up with the younger guys,” Anderson said.

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 2:16 PM with the headline "Modesto plastic surgeon nears 50 years in practice."