Roberts sets up shop at HMC
HOLYOKE Dr. Loran Willis Roberts enjoys making an immediate difference in patients' lives. His general surgery practice fulfills this desire, while helping his patients get back to their lives as quickly and as painlessly as possible following their procedures.
"When I was 12, I ruptured my liver. I was in the hospital for a month in the ICU," said Roberts, an avid artist at the time. "After that I was either going into art or medicine, and medicine won out."
A native of Coventry, R.I., Roberts did his undergraduate and graduate work at Brown University in Providence. He completed residencies in Bridgeport, Conn., Long Island, N.Y., and Allentown, Pa., and also spent three years at the Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, Texas, running the burn unit team and writing surgical care protocols.
"I guess now I don't get excited when something bad happens. I'm able to remain levelheaded," said Roberts, of his 25 years of surgical practice, in Maine, Westfield and now Holyoke.
Roberts recently opened his practice at 10 Hospital Drive, Suite 203, on the HMC campus, a step towards his helping to augment a general surgery department of excellence at HMC, serving patients throughout the region.
Roberts' new office has the same friendly faces patients are used to seeing when visiting Roberts for pre-surgical visits and follow-up appointments his wife Noelle, a 10-year registered nurse, Lisa Martin, office manager and Betty Brown, administrative assistant.
Roberts has been performing surgery at HMC for many years and looks forward to increasing his presence at the well-reputed community hospital, working closely with other well-established top-notch general surgeons.
"The big draw for me is working with the physicians who I know and trust. It's been a long time coming. Holyoke is a real community-based hospital. You're personally treated there, the way it should be," said Roberts. "The docs have a really good fund of knowledge. They're excellent in the OR and they've been very supportive of me through the years."
Roberts sees patients for all sorts of surgeries, the most common of which involve hernias, gallbladders, colons, the endocrine system and breasts.
"Breast surgery has changed a lot. When I first started it was common to do mastectomies and now it is uncommon. For select individuals, sampling the lymph nodes by performing a sentinel node biopsy is less invasive, so the patient experiences less post-op pain and a faster and safer recovery."
At the time Roberts finished his residency, laparoscopic surgeries were primarily done for gallbladder removal, he said, while today this minimally invasive technology is used for many procedures involving hernias, the breasts, appendix, colon and spleen.
Roberts prides himself on keeping up to date with new surgical techniques and technology. He also enjoys getting to know his patients and easing their pre-surgical anxiety.
"Let's face it, nobody likes to have surgery," he said. "One of the things that's enjoyable here in the office is talking to them about things other than why they're here."
Most rewarding for Roberts is seeing his patients get better. "Or, if it's a malignancy, I like to see that I have in a way improved them significantly," he said.
To make an appointment with Roberts, call 540-5048.
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