NEW YORK — Dr. David Altchek, who performed more than 2,000 Tommy John surgeries and was the New York Mets longtime medical director, died Thursday. He was 68.
His death was announced by the Hospital for Special Surgery, where he was co-chief emeritus. Altchek told associates last year he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.
He was the Mets head team physician from 1991-2001 and medical director from 2005-24, physician of the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1999-2003 and North American medical director of the ATP Tour. Altchek was co-chief of HSS's sports medicine and shoulder service from 2005-14.
''While Dr. Altchek's intelligence and innovations certainly benefited his patients — and sports medicine in general — his biggest impact was his warm, friendly, caring personality,'' said Glenn S. Fleisig, biomechanics research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute. ''Colleagues, friends, and patients all loved David and are thankful for the time we had with him.''
A son of orthopedic surgeon Martin Altchek, David attended Middletown High School in New York, received his undergraduate degree at Columbia and his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1982. He interned at The New York Hospital and became a resident at HSS, where he had a fellowship under Dr. Russell Warren, HSS's surgeon in chief from 1993-03 and a longtime team physician of the New York Giants.
''My first Tommy John surgery was in 1993, and I did the procedure that Dr. Jobe, Dr. Frank Jobe prescribed,'' Altchek said during a 2024 interview with The Associated Press. ''It took 2 1/2 hours and I was exhausted. And I realized then that we had to do something about Tommy John surgery. We had to make it a little bit easier.''
Working with residents and fellows, Altchek developed what was called a docking procedure and tested it on about 100 elbows.
''It worked and it worked amazingly well,'' Altchek said. ''We really did not change it at all for 20-something years."
