A DALLAS SURGEON’S PATRIOTIC JOURNEY

A Dallas physician makes a legendary commitment

By David Muscari

While some in their sixties are eyeing retirement, cardiothoracic surgeon Dan Meyer’s heart provided an exciting new direction. His inspirational story is rooted in altruism, compassion, professionalism, persistence, and what it means to be an American.

The chief of heart transplant and advanced circulatory support at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas has been operating on and transplanting hearts and lungs for three decades.

That kind of hospital tenure isn’t necessarily unique at Dr. Meyer’s age, but in his case, there’s an unusual new wrinkle.

Last July, Dr. Meyer became the oldest graduate of the U.S. Navy Officer Development School at age 63. He was among 80 newly commissioned officers, the majority in their twenties and thirties, on the same campus in Newport, R.I., where the historic U.S. Naval War College is located.

“I’ve always been interested in humanitarian aid like Doctors Without Borders and those types of groups,” the soft-spoken physician says.

However, Dr. Meyer found that there was little demand for his specialty.

“You’d turn in a resume, then never hear anything,” he recalls. “I just didn’t want to go through my entire career and think, ‘I wish I would have done this.’”

Another motivation was his aspiration to do “something bigger” beyond his own medical microcosm — “something even more significant than what I was already doing,” he explains.

A California native who lives in Highland Park here, Meyer graduated from medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles.

He’s concerned about military issues and works with patients from the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System in Dallas.

For years, he’d tried on his own to make contacts with the Navy but with little success. cardiothoracic surgeons in the entire U.S. Navy Reserve.

The rigors of basic training still resonate.

“You’re up at 4:30 a.m. for physical training,” he says, adding that the hardest part was mental. “You can never let up,” he says. “It’s the way you walk, even how you carry your hands — pretty intense. Everything had to be exact all the time.”

Today, Lt. Commander Dan Meyer is a proud member of the U.S. Navy Reserve Medical Corps assigned to the

IT’S AN EXCITING WAY TO BE PART OF YOUR COUNTRY, AND NOT ONLY GIVE BACK BUT LEARN ABOUT WHY AMERICA WORKS THE WAY IT DOES.”

Upon learning of his interest in serving, one of the operating-room nurses told Dr. Meyer she’d been in the Naval Reserves for years and offered to get him a contact.

He then went through the long process of applying and working his way in. It was a year and a half before he was able to attend the officer development school in 2021, and he’s now one of only eight Expeditionary Medical Facility at Camp Pendleton, Calif., scheduled to report once per quarter. Dr. Meyer also trains annually for two weeks a year.

“We set up mobile hospitals of 50- to 150-bed units,” he explains. “If someone at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. gets deployed to a main theater, we backfill.”

Dr. Meyer also spends a weekend each month closer

Photo By Amanda Shoultz

to home in at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, while continuing his work at Baylor Scott & White Health.

Would he ever go into a war zone?

“If there is a need – and we are told to go,” he explains.

Dr. Meyer says he hopes to stay in the Navy Reserves as long as he has a role, and his services are needed.

“My goal is to train the younger surgeons, which is another of my motivations. I also like training the young corpsmen,” he explains.

Observing his fellow officer candidates was inspiring, he says, describing it as “fullcontact leadership training.”

“To see how they carry themselves because of what they’ve learned, and at such a young age – it’s impressive.”

Knowing what he does now, Dr. Meyer says he wishes he had done this earlier.

“It’s emotional just being around those guys because you know the sacrifices they’ve made,” he says. “I am honored to be involved and glad to be able to help. It’s an exciting way to be part of your country, and not only give back but learn about why America works the way it does.”