Dr. Liby joins Weiser Memorial Hospital staff

Weiser Memorial Hospital recently welcomed General Surgeon, Dr. Christopher Liby, to its medical staff.

 Liby, who joined the WMH team April 4, was previously employed at St. Alphonsus Hospital in Baker City, Ore. For now, Dr. Liby is working on a part-time basis and is commuting from his home in Baker City.

 “For some reason or other, I guess financially motivated, they didn’t want to employ two general surgeons,” Dr. Liby said. “My contract came up first and they didn’t want to renew it. I started my job search and made some calls, and that’s when I found Weiser. I heard that Dr. (Roman) Babij was retiring, and it worked out. I’m very happy to be part of the team here.”

 The position has the potential to grow into full-time in the future depending on demand.

As a general surgeon, Dr. Liby commonly performs hernia repairs, gall bladder surgery, appendix removal, and endoscopies.

 He grew up in Eagle, Idaho where he homeschooled and participated in sports at Eagle High School, fulfilling the requirements for graduation in 2001. Dr. Liby earned his undergraduate degree, a bachelor’s in science and biology, from Boise State University before attending medical school at Western University of Health Sciences in southern Calif., near Los Angeles.

 “It was an interesting track; they have what’s called the Northwest Track where I spent my first two years of academic work and then rotations in the northwest area,” Dr. Liby explained. “I was primarily located in Portland. The whole idea was to get more training in the northwest and stay in that area.”

 Dr. Liby nonetheless spent his five-year residency at a hospital in Michigan, near Detroit.

 “That really solidified things,” he said. “I wanted to get back to this part of the world. Every time I came to visit during my residency, it was like a breath of fresh air, just to get away.”

 Dr. Liby said residency was a grueling experience.

 “You do have points where you are just exhausted,” he said. “Throughout the years, they’ve developed hour restrictions. The current rule is an 80-hour work week, and you often do 30-hour shifts where you are at the hospital for 30 hours at a time and are responsible for surgeries, consults, and then ER visits throughout the night.”

 He said it was never his childhood dream to become a doctor but that he eventually found himself making that journey based on his specific academic interests and abilities.

 “It wasn’t really a game plan to become a doctor or a surgeon,” he said. “In college, I kind of landed in the biology and chemistry department. I had friends there and through interaction with them and what they were doing, I decided I wanted to go to medical school. I just really excelled in anatomy compared to other classes. It was something I took to really easily and naturally, and I guess I had a knack for procedures and gravitated toward that.

 “As I was getting exposure to surgical procedures, I had a sense of satisfaction in identifying a problem and fixing it, whereas with the other aspects of medicine, you are prescribing medications that treat symptoms; you’re not really fixing anything.”

 For those who meet Dr. Liby for the first time, it might be tempting to size him up as a bit young, but that’s not the case for the 39-year-old married father of two.

 “Yeah, people call me Doogie Howser,” he chuckled. “But it’s all good. I do have a couple gray hairs coming in, so …”