Doug Herland, profiled in a recent Pat Cashman column, also “surprised” me!

A dynamic cheerful man with deformities of his Ostogenesis imperfecta [brittle bone disease].

As friend and the team doctor, I knew him as the nationally recognized coach of PLU’s highly successful rowing teams, honored in their Athletic Hall of Fame. He was written up in “Sports Illustrated.”

He “surprised” the orthopedic community both locally and nationally, surviving more than 22 fractures and many major bone surgeries before his death at age 39.

A “giant of a man” as Cashman noted – only 4’8” tall, whose multi-fractured arms were as big as his deformed fractured legs.

Dr. John McDermott