Dr. Gabel Joins General Surgeon Team At FMDH

Dr. Kelly Gabel, DO, is the newest general surgeon at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, joining Kevin Cahill, MD, and Jahanara Graf, MD, FACS, to the general surgery team. This newest addition to the hospital provides the area with 24 hours, seven days a week general surgery services.

Dr. Gabel is familiar with rural healthcare as this area of medical care is all that he knows. He was born and raised in a small town in northwest Kansas with a population of about 1,300 people and the entire county in which he grew up had 4,000 people. When Dr. Gabel decided to make his entrance into the world, his parents had to drive 30 miles, while his mom was in labor, to the nearest hospital for delivery. Growing up, both of his parents were emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and basically ran the emergency medical service (EMS) and were often the only ones available to go out on calls to help people. "They missed Christmases and Thanksgiving dinners, things like that, going out to help people," reflected Gabel. The desire to help people was so engrained in him growing up that he became an EMT himself while a junior in high school.

The pathway to becoming a general surgeon also has roots from his upbringing and environment during his childhood. "The town that I grew up in, the family doc that was there did everything. He did surgeries, hip pinnings, took out appendixes, very old fashioned family doctor," explained Gabel. "So that's kind of how I saw what a doctor was, was somebody who did everything." He attended Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kan., and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. He then went into medical school at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences – College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he quickly learned family doctors are not trained in all aspects anymore. "The reality of it...to feel comfortable doing everything I wanted to do, I would have had to either practice in Alaska or go on missions or do another couple year fellowship, which would essentially be a general surgery residency," said Gabel. "My first surgery rotation was on with a private practice surgeon who really took call but he had an awesome lifestyle, eight to four every day, only took call for his patients."

While in general surgery residency at Botsford Hospital, in Farmington Hills, Mich., Dr. Gabel had experiences that allowed him to feel this was the right path in life for him. "It probably stems from a couple of the times being an EMT feeling helpless, like I didn't know enough, like I couldn't do enough to save the person and always wanted to," reflected Gabel. "What I saw in general surgery was that the general surgeons and the residency was very crucial to the functioning of the hospital. We knew our critical care medicine, we knew medicine and critical care, for really sick patients, just as good as anybody else or better sometimes....It just served my personality."

Dr. Gabel comes to FMDH after practicing 10 years in Colby, Kan., which is within an hour of where he grew up. He and his wife, who he met in college before going to the same medical school, signed on to a small critical access hospital, where he established the general surgery program by himself and was the only surgeon there for two years. After those two years, he was able to bring on a colleague who, with their partnership, was able to serve the entire northwest Kansas area for the last eight years. "My kids are growing up fast. Even when I was there, not on call, I still didn't get home early enough. So I sought out different ways to improve that process and the only way that I felt like I could truly do that was to get out of the contract and start fresh," explained Gabel for his reason in taking this opportunity in Glasgow. "I can do general surgery, build somewhat of my own practice up here too, but also when I was done, I was done. I can go home and spend time with my family."

Dr. Gabel started at FMDH on Good Friday, April 7, and has been enjoying his time so far while in the area. He admits his approach as a surgeon is a conservative approach first and then the invasive approach if the other approaches aren't working since a surgery can not be undone. "I am first and foremost, a teacher and an educator. I need to be able to educate my patients as well as my colleagues about good health care, good health habits and how to approach the issues of the problems that they have. There are many things that are better managed if you have a good knowledge of that. I like to educate as much as possible with my patients and help them understand their disease, help them understand the process," said Gabel.

In addition to being a great general surgeon, Gabel is also an instrument rated pilot and owns his own twin Cessna airplane, which allows him to be able to easily travel back and forth from Glasgow to Kansas, where his family still resides. In his free time, he enjoys hiking with his family at the Nation's national parks, camping, fishing and playing the guitar while also enjoying the greens while golfing. He does admit, he also spends an "unhealthy amount of time" every year putting up the family's Christmas lights show. He is also looking forward to learning more about Glasgow and Valley County.

If you would like to schedule a self-referral appointment, please call the FMDH Glasgow Clinic Specialty Care at 406-228-3536.