From Trauma Patient to Spine Surgeon: The Story Behind Hey Clinic
A conversation with Dr. Lloyd Hey about his journey from a life-changing accident to founding North Carolina’s premier scoliosis and spine care center
The Early Years: A Family of Innovators
KC Wheeler, Orthotist: Hello. Today we are talking with the man himself, Dr. Lloyd Hey, MD. Dr. Hey is the owner of the Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Care here in Raleigh, North Carolina. The clinic is his vision, and today we’re going to learn a little bit more about him and how the Hey Clinic got started.
Dr. Lloyd Hey: I was blessed with a great mom who was a nurse—I think that had some influence on me in the medical field. In addition to that, my dad was an aeronautical engineer, a pilot, a flight instructor, and a real tinkerer. He loved to fix things, and he taught me how to fix things.
The Accident That Changed Everything
At age 16, something really bad happened to me. I got hit by a car and had a very, very bad leg crush injury, and that really changed my life. I could have easily died, and I could have easily had an amputation. However, I met a great doctor in the ER—Dr. Pittman—and this guy really changed my life.
The first doctor who saw me thought I’d need an amputation, but Dr. Pittman was willing to take on my tough case and gave me hope, and that made a big difference. As a result, I ended up spending three months in the hospital with 11 surgeries, dealing with sepsis, infections, and complications.
This is my leg—three inches of my tibia was just lost onto the street, and I had a huge wound. Dr. Pittman used an external fixator to hold the bones, then took bone graft from my hips and used tissue flaps to try to get it to heal.
Finding Purpose Through Adversity
But through that bad thing, God really did a good thing. It gave me a vision for potentially trying to be somebody like Dr. Pittman someday—a Good Samaritan trying to help others. Furthermore, it gave me a vision for combining the medical with engineering, like my mom and dad. I got this idea of being a tinkerer to help patients.
In fact, even as a 16-year-old, I redesigned the frame for my external fixator because it was two parallelograms that would shift and hurt my leg and wouldn’t let it heal properly. I actually redesigned it on graph paper. My dad helped me finish the design, and my orthopedic doctor actually put on the new frame. It felt so much stronger with less pain, and it actually helped it to heal. I was like, “That’s it. I’m going to help patients as a doctor, but combine it with engineering.”
Life Beyond the Operating Room
KC: What kind of things do you like to do outside of the operating room?
Dr. Hey: Well, my big thing besides sleep is I love to fly. Specifically, I’ve been flying since I was a kid with my dad—I was his first passenger at age four. Obviously my injury slowed down my flying lessons, but I did eventually become a pilot. Now, I have my own plane and fly on a regular basis. I just love the freedom of flying, the engineering behind it, and the safety and rigor, which fits in with me as a spine surgeon. That’s actually helped me develop a whole system for doing spine surgery safer using checklists. But that’s another podcast!
KC: And a funny story—about seven years ago, we were flying up to Virginia. I met them at the executive lot and said, “Dr. Hey, who’s flying this plane?” He said, “I am!” I didn’t know you could fly! But Dr. Hey is an excellent pilot. We made it!
The Long Road to Becoming a Surgeon
KC: So how long did you have to go to school to become a spine surgeon?
Dr. Hey: Great question. One of the big things that I love to do is mentoring—I have a lot of apprentices. So for any young listeners, I hope this will be fun for you. It seems like a long way, but it’s not. It’s worth it. It really is.
To begin with, you start with finishing high school, four years of college pre-med, then usually four years of medical school. After that, you complete residency which is typically around five years. In my case, I did a chief residency at Boston Children’s, a fellowship at Boston Children’s, and then an adult spine fellowship. All told, it was about 15 years of training.
KC: What medical school did you go to?
Dr. Hey: I went to Harvard Medical School after MIT undergrad, and then Harvard for my residency and fellowship.
From Duke Faculty to Hey Clinic
KC: What made you decide to start the Hey Clinic?
Dr. Hey: Great question. Initially, I was blessed to work at Duke for my first 10 years of practice, where I helped kids and adults with spinal deformity. I did a lot of innovation there and helped implement some new information systems, and I loved it. However, I got the vision for trying to have my own “Living Learning Lab” to improve quality and safety even more.
This was before there were EMRs, and I had built an initial information system and really wanted to implement better quality and safety in healthcare. Nevertheless, it’s really hard to steer a big ship—Duke is like the Queen Elizabeth. Consequently, I figured if I could create a little pilot boat, we might be able to create new systems that could help other doctors in the future while giving more concierge-level care.
The Conservative Treatment Revolution
KC: When did you decide to expand to offer conservative treatment options?
Dr. Hey: Great question. I’ve always done conservative treatment, even when I was faculty at Duke and in the first 10-15 years here at the Hey Clinic. But about eight or nine years ago, I had a real paradigm shift. Specifically, I wasn’t really satisfied with the Boston brace, which has been used since the 1970s.
There was a big study that came out in 2014—a randomized controlled trial that said bracing really works—but I couldn’t get these kids to wear the brace, right? Therefore, I did a lot of research to see if there were any more modern braces and came across the Rigo Chêneau design, which uses 3D CAD-CAM imaging to get the perfect shape for the perfect brace.
Subsequently, I learned about the Schroth therapy that goes along with that—the exercises—and actually went to Europe and learned about that and all the outcome data, which is much more prevalent in Europe than here in the US. I believed this could improve care for our patients.
At the same time, Duke blessed us with this new office space which was large enough for us to actually do Schroth therapy. As a result, we invited you as our first orthotist and bought you all the equipment you needed to make braces in-house. That was the vision—do it all under one roof.
Remarkable Results: A Two-Thirds Reduction in Surgery
KC: We’ve been doing that now for eight years here in this office. So I assume that the conservative treatment is going well?
Dr. Hey: Going very well. In fact, we just submitted a paper for publication where we looked at our outcomes for the eight years before we made the paradigm shift and the last eight years. The results were absolutely astounding. Specifically, the percent of patients needing surgery went down by two-thirds, which is amazing. Moreover, many of the kids—if we could catch them early—we’re finishing with curves under 30 degrees, which we call the “Green Zone,” which means it’s very unlikely that they’re ever going to have problems later in life. It’s a game changer.
How to Get Started
KC: Yes, definitely. So if someone’s listening to or watching this podcast, how could they reach out and get an appointment with us or see if we’re an appropriate fit?
Dr. Hey: It’s super easy. First of all, just go to the website at heyclinic.com. You can even text us through the website, and we can get the process going. I think one of our other podcasts will cover proper screening. It is very important—in order for this to work, we’ve got to catch the curves early. Therefore, make sure you get your kids screened starting at age five, and make sure they use the scoliometer. If the scoliometer reads more than a 5-degree angle—which you can even check at home with an iPhone—you really should come to a place like Hey Clinic and get an X-ray.
KC: Well, thank you so much, Dr. Hey, for joining us today. Our aim is to teach people that a scoliosis diagnosis is not scary. Thank you for joining us as we continue to help manage your scoliosis from every angle.
Key Takeaways
- Personal Experience Matters – Dr. Hey’s own trauma as a patient drives his compassionate approach to care
- Innovation Through Engineering – Combining medical expertise with engineering principles improves patient outcomes
- Conservative Treatment Works – 66% reduction in surgery rates through modern bracing and Schroth therapy
- Early Detection is Critical – Screening starting at age 5 can prevent surgery later in life
- All-Under-One-Roof Care – Hey Clinic offers imaging, bracing, physical therapy, and surgery when needed
Ready to Learn More?
If you or your child has been diagnosed with scoliosis, or if you’re concerned about spinal health, we’re here to help. At Hey Clinic, we believe a scoliosis diagnosis doesn’t have to be scary—instead, it’s an opportunity for proactive, compassionate care.
Schedule a consultation: Visit heyclinic.com or call (919) 790-1717
Watch more episodes: Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Listen on podcast platforms: Coming soon to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!
Want to share your scoliosis story or have questions for Dr. Hey? Contact us through our website—your question might be featured in a future episode!
