[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 17, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6484-S6485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO DR. JOHN D. KNOX, JR.

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, tonight in Marietta, GA, my hometown, 
there will be a celebration I cannot attend. There will be a 
celebration to honor 50 years of medical service to our community by 
Dr. John D. Knox, Jr. I hate it that I can't be there because he has 
been an important part of my life, but I would like to take a minute on 
the floor of the Senate to pay tribute to Dr. Knox and all those 
physicians who deliver health care to our people, our citizens in our 
States, our districts, and our country.
  As I pondered what I would say about John Knox on the floor this 
morning, I was sitting in my office looking at the plaques and 
certificates all of us receive for various works we have done in public 
life, and it occurred to me, when you go into a doctor's office you 
will see a diploma and you might see a Norman Rockwell painting, but 
really the trophies and tributes to doctors are people walking around 
with two feet in our communities who have survived a terrible injury or 
a terrible disease and who are living a normal life because a 
physician, with his or her training, brought them back to life or cured 
a terrible problem.
  Dr. John Knox has done that for 50 years in my community--50 years as 
an orthopedic specialist and orthopedic surgeon with Resurgens 
Orthopaedics, which is one of the largest orthopedic practices in the 
Southeast. In fact, one of those great trophies to John D. Knox, Jr., 
is my son Kevin, who in 1989 went through the windshield of a pickup 
truck on a rural road in south Georgia. He had a double compound 
fracture of his lower right leg. He landed in a ditch full of dirty 
water and lay there for 2 hours before help came. Fortunately, he 
didn't sever an artery, but he was in bad shape.
  I got the call at 4 a.m. that no parent ever wants to get--the call 
that paramedics had my son, that they were on the interstate and did I 
want them to take him to Augusta Medical College or to Atlanta, GA, for 
treatment because nobody in rural Georgia had the facility to treat his 
injuries. I immediately asked them to bring him to Marietta, GA, to 
Kennestone Hospital, and to immediately call John D. Knox and ask him 
if he would meet my son at the emergency room. The next 6 weeks my son 
had four surgeries, all performed by John D. Knox. He had antibiotic 
therapy to make sure his bone marrow did not get infected from lying in 
the ditch. For 8 months he got psychiatric and psychological help and

[[Page S6485]]

home recovery with his mom, myself, doctors, and those physicians 
recommended by John Knox.
  The great story is that the night before my son was injured, he 
started as defensive end for Walton High School. One year later, after 
this terrible wreck and recovery, he again started as defensive end for 
Walton High School. The miracle of medicine put my son back together, 
but if it wasn't for John D. Knox, my son might not be here today.
  I wanted John D. Knox, a great doctor in Marietta, GA, to know that 
what he did in 1989 for my son and what he has done for countless 
thousands of citizens in my community for years and years never will go 
unappreciated and will always be recognized. I am glad my family was a 
part of his 50 years of service as a physician. God bless John D. Knox, 
and congratulations on his service to our great community of Cobb 
County, GA.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________