Michael K. Gannon, MD

Michael K. Gannon, MD, is a board-certified and very experienced orthopedic surgeon. His practice over the last thirty years has emphasized hip and knee replacement and care of sports injuries including meniscal, ACL and rotator cuff tears. As he has treated emergency cases for decades and has repaired countless extremity injuries great and small.

Dr. Gannon began his life in medicine at age sixteen as a hospital orderly and ambulance attendant. He was the second youngest in his state to pass the national EMT-A certification exam. During college he worked summers as an operating room technician plus a second job detasseling corn. He went to medical school in his home state at the University of Iowa. He received his specialty training in the highly regarded orthopedic surgery residency program at the University of Washington. After completing his orthopedic training, he had the honor to serve five years as “co-team physician” for multiple military units from smaller Special Forces and Ranger groups to infantry divisions with 12,000+ athletic members (of note such “teams” never have an off-season and are active on rough terrain day and night). Duties included work in Europe, Africa, and the Persian Gulf. Stateside, as a faculty member, he oversaw sports medicine and trauma training for orthopedic residents at Madigan Army Medical Center. He later served as civilian consultant for sports medicine for Madigan.

Since 1993 he has been serving residents of Whatcom County as a member of a topflight orthopedic surgery group. Over the course of his career, he has had the privilege to treat patients and their families from amazingly diverse backgrounds, from remote Saharan herdsmen and villagers to national leaders and Rhodes scholars….  from angry enemy combatants and fierce criminals to Medal of Honor recipients and heroic first responders…. from the youngest backyard acrobats and trampolinists to past Olympians and hobbled NFL veterans. He has worked in world class medical centers to makeshift hospitals with no windows or beds but goats in the halls. Dr. Gannon has cared for patients of the innumerable combinations of races, countries of origin, life circumstances, faiths, orientations, and political beliefs. His lifelong approach has been to provide care for each person with the respect, compassion, and diligence he would wish for his own family members.

Hobbies and adventures over the years have included climbing, backpacking, flying, scuba, skiing, and more recently snowshoeing and photography. His very favorite pastime is hanging out with his family.