Terry Clyburn, MD

Terry Alan Clyburn, M.D., was born at the original Memorial Hospital in downtown Houston in 1952. His father was a design engineer at Hughes Tool Company, designing drilling equipment and rock bits. His mother was a bank teller at the Harrisburg Bank near the Turning Basin of the Ship Channel. His grandfather was a home builder. He worked for his father and his grandfather doing plumbing and carpentry. His father, who spent his days designing mechanical equipment, spent his evenings and weekends working on mechanical equipment. He taught Dr. Clyburn the basics of auto repair, and Dr. Clyburn also helped his father build an airplane.

Dr. Clyburn went to Stephen F. Austin High School in central Houston and then went to the University of Houston where he graduated with a Magna Cum Laude in Science. During his years at the University of Houston, he worked at St. Luke’s Texas Heart Institute as a phlebotomist (blood drawer). He also worked at Kelsey Seybold Clinic in the Microbiology Lab. When Dr. Clyburn sustained a knee injury while playing football, he was treated by a local orthopaedist, Dr. Thomas Cain, who invited him to spend some time with him. Dr. Clyburn spent several days with Dr. Cain when he was treating the Houston Oilers, serving as the Chief of Staff at the Shrine Crippled Children’s Hospital, and also doing research in the area of cartilage transplantation. Dr. Clyburn became convinced that orthopaedic surgery would combine the skills learned from his grandfather and father as a young man with his interests in science and entering into a field in direct patient care.

Dr. Clyburn went to medical school at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. While there, Dr. Clyburn had the opportunity to rotate at the Baylor College of Medicine where he met Dr. Paul Harrington. Dr. Harrington is the developer of the Harrington Spinal Instrumentation System which was originally developed to treat spinal curvature in children that resulted from polio. This system became widely used for all forms of scoliosis, spinal trauma, and other disorders. Dr. Clyburn then entered his internship at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He began this work in 1979 when interns and the residents still flew with the Life Flight Program. Dr. Clyburn made over 100 flights, bringing in both medical and surgical patients. Interns and residents no longer fly with Life Flight because of risk of legal action against the hospital should they be injured.) Dr. Clyburn then entered his residency at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in the area of Orthopaedics, doing extensive trauma training with the Hermann Hospital, musculoskeletal oncology and reconstruction at the M.D. Anderson Tumor Institute, and treating children at the Shrine Crippled Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Clyburn went to medical school at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. While there, Dr. Clyburn had the opportunity to rotate at the Baylor College of Medicine where he met Dr. Paul Harrington. Dr. Harrington is the developer of the Harrington Spinal Instrumentation System which was originally developed to treat spinal curvature in children that resulted from polio. This system became widely used for all forms of scoliosis, spinal trauma, and other disorders. Dr. Clyburn then entered his internship at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He began this work in 1979 when interns and the residents still flew with the Life Flight Program. Dr. Clyburn made over 100 flights, bringing in both medical and surgical patients. Interns and residents no longer fly with Life Flight because of risk of legal action against the hospital should they be injured.) Dr. Clyburn then entered his residency at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in the area of Orthopaedics, doing extensive trauma training with the Hermann Hospital, musculoskeletal oncology and reconstruction at the M.D. Anderson Tumor Institute, and treating children at the Shrine Crippled Children’s Hospital. During this training, Dr Clyburn completed two research projects and published one report in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. One paper was entitled “Atlanto-axial Instability in Children” and the other “Correction of Bow-Legged Deformity in Dwarfing Conditions”. The case report was the first and still only report of “Bilateral Transverse Process Fractures”.