Laurel A. Matthews
Dr. Laurel Matthews (“Laurel”) is a physician and an attorney. She is residency trained in general surgery and transplantation and also board certified in emergency medicine. Laurel completed law school at Case Western Reserve University in 1993. She has been continuously engaged in the practice of medicine since 1981 in various arenas, and since 1993 has also practiced law. Most recently, Laurel made the decision to transition her medical practice to focus on critical care. To that end, she entered the fellowship matching program, and after matching at Wright State University, Laurel began a one-year fellowship in Surgical Critical Care at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, which will be completed in July, 2012. Laurel is also the lead investigator in an exciting prospective Brain Trauma Biomarkers prospective pilot study, which she anticipates will have completed patient accrual before the end of her fellowship year.
Laurel completed her first two years of general surgery residency at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's in Chicago (1981-1983), followed by three years at Michael Reese Hospital (1983-1986). During those years, Laurel had the honor of winning the Young Investigator's Award in Shock Research from the Shock Society, and the Chicago Surgical Research Award. She followed her residency with a very prestigious fellowship in transplantation surgery with Dr. Thomas Starzl at the University of Pittsburgh which was a combined program with a satellite facility at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, Texas under the directorship of Goran Klintmalm, M.D. During that year, Laurel authored numerous clinical and research publications.
Laurel is also licensed to practice law in both Ohio and California. Since completing law school in 1993, Laurel continuously practiced Emergency Medicine and/or Urgent Care Medicine and practiced law in the medico-legal arena as well.
Laurel is one of the founding board members of Life Plant International and she has travelled to the Philippines as a surgical team member assisting on the living related donor nephrectomies and kidney transplant operations as well as our other humanitarian outreach programs. Laurel is certified in ATLS, ACLS, and PALS.
