St. Luke’s Hand Surgeon David Kirby, MD, Returns to His Rural Roots by Seeing Patients in Orwigsburg and Tamaqua

Orthopedic hand surgeon David Kirby, MD, born and raised in rural Missouri, spent many years obtaining his education in some of the nation’s largest cities. Now, he is treating patients in Orwigsburg and Tamaqua, where he feels more at home.

Dr. Kirby of St. Luke’s Orthopedic Care and Geisinger St. Luke’s Specialty Services – Orthopedics specializes in diagnosing and treating conditions of the hand and arm from the elbow down – from complex fractures to everyday irritations, like tendonitis. The conditions he treats include trigger finger, tennis and golfers’ elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, de Quervain tenosynovitis, nerve conditions and arthritis of the wrist, thumb and fingers.

After completing medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, residency at NYU Hospital for Joint Disease-Orthopedic Institute in New York and a fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, he joined St. Luke’s in 2024.

“I grew up in Missouri and not in a major city, but very much a rural area,” he said. “Geographically, it’s very different from this area, but demographically, it’s very similar – a working-class region that wasn’t densely populated. Truthfully, that’s always what I wanted – to serve a community like where I grew up. I had the opportunity to receive some of the best training, which happened to be in major cities, but now I’m getting back to my roots with this job.”

Dr. Kirby went to college to be a plant biologist and researcher. He worked on a project to modify corn and wheat cereal grains to make them more nutritious for cattle, lower methane gases and decrease feed costs. However, a contamination in his lab caused his entire two-year project to be deleted in a week.

At the same time, he was working as a secretary for a pediatrician. She encouraged him to become a doctor when she heard about what happened. He started shadowing her and fell in love with medicine.

“So, I went to medical school to be a pediatrician as I enjoyed working with kids and working with her as she helped people in the community,” he said.

Then, during medical school, he worked with a pediatric scoliosis surgeon who took him under his wing.

“He actually let me do a surgery the very first day, a very simple case, and I fell in love with it,” he said. He described it as being in a flow state, where you’re absorbed and intensely focused on something.

“In a flow state, you start something, and it feels like it’s been five minutes when it’s actually been two hours; it was that kind of thing,” he said. “After that, I wanted to do orthopedics, so I followed my passion.”

Dr. Kirby found hand surgery particularly fulfilling because of its complexity. He said every patient has a problem that needs to be solved. Finding the cause and how to manage it is challenging, but that and seeing his patients improve, is what he loves about hand surgery.

For example, during his training, his team treated an 18-year-old patient who received a wrist fracture in a sports injury. Untreated, the injury would have caused debilitating arthritis in his hand. Dr. Kirby’s team treated it by using a part of a bone in the hand to reconstruct the injured bone.

“It’s cases like that where you can truly see the impact of your work,” he said. “He was 18 years old, and he would have developed debilitating arthritis but instead had a fully functioning wrist.”

Dr. Kirby discourages people with an issue with their hands, wrists and arms from postponing seeking help. The earlier a physician diagnoses the condition and begins treatment, the better the chance of recovery.

“So, if someone has an ache, pain, numbness or any sort of irritation in the hand or forearm, they can come to me, and I’ll figure it out,” he said.

To schedule an appointment with Dr. Kirby, call 484-526-1735.