Hometown doctors-returning home to serve their community
The Ohio Valley family values instilled in Dr. Matthew Metz, a general surgeon with WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital and Dr. Samantha (Sami) Richardson, an Obstetrician/Gynecologist with Wheeling Hospital run deep.
Both decided to return to their hometown to live and work where they grew up after college because they wanted their children to grow up in the same close-knit community they knew and loved.
“I’ve always felt that coming back home and taking care of people where I grew up and was raised kind of provides back to the community that gave me what I have today,” said Metz.
Richardson said she also moved back to care for her community.
“I have a lot of family here,” said Richardson. “I have a lot of close-knit friends here where we all went to grade school, high school and college together. It was also very important to me, coming back here, that I would be able to take care of the community that I grew up in.”
Dr. Matthew Metz
Metz grew up in St. Clairsville. His father was a State trooper and his mom worked in Wheeling for Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company. After graduating from Linsly High School, he earned a bachelor of science in Pre-Professional Studies from the University of Notre Dame,a doctorate of medicine from West Virginia University and he did his residency at the Charleston Area Medical Centers and chose general surgery as his specialty.
“I always wanted to become a doctor,” said Metz. “I had a bunch of nurses and physicians in my family. My uncle was a cardiologist and my grandma was a nurse who worked three different jobs and slept four hours a day taking care of patients. That was what kind of got me intrigued from that standpoint.
Metz said he also always, not only knew he wanted to be a doctor, but specifically, a surgeon.
“When we were doing our rotations, general surgery was the most comprehensive field at the time,” said Metz. “We took care of all different kinds of patients and all different kinds of medical conditions. Surgically, it wouldn’t be ‘I just repaired four hips’. It would be colon resections, appendectomy, vascular surgery and more. I just really liked the wide variety of possibilities with general surgery.”
After his residency, Metz had a private practice and a hospital-based practice in South Carolina, just below Myrtle Beach for 16 years.
He had decided he did not want to raise his family in that area and was considering a change.
Coincidently, his college roommate was the CEO at Reynolds. They were going on a golfing trip and he told him about what was happening in his area. His friend said, Why don’t you just move back home?
Metz said initially, he was against it.
“I lived at the beach, why would I want to move back to the Ohio Valley?” he said. “But, after talking to my family, my kids were six and eight, it was really just appealing to come back home. I loved growing up here. I think there is a ton of stuff to do and I came back home to be closer to family especially as the kids are growing up. They love it here and we do a lot of outdoor activities.”
If you had to wrap Ohio family values into one word, it might be – Nice.
“My wife says people are so nice here,” said Metz. “My mother-in-law just moved here and she said everyone she meets is so nice. They care about their fellow man, which nowadays in society that doesn’t happen a lot. It definitely didn’t happen in South Carolina. It was just crazy.”
Metz said those values of caring for individuals, just don’t happen as often as they should.
“I don’t think I am the typical general surgeon,” he said. “I try to treat the whole patient and there is a lot that goes into it, especially with emergent situations. There is a lot to dealing with people on an emergent basis, so I just try to treat people the way I would want my family to be treated.”
On the street where Metz grew up, the “Mills Road Local Four”, which included the four houses around where he grew up.
“Those guys where I grew up and my dad used to do projects together all the time. They all got together and built a pool in our backyard. One was a bricklayer, one was a contractor and everyone worked together to get things done. When I moved back, I rented a house two doors from where I grew up. So, for three years, my kids were able to grow up on the same street I did. Literally, we would walk by the house I grew up in every day. It was like I never left. I live in Glendale, WV now and walks to work every day.”
Metz said it was nice to come home to good people, good family values and people who really care. He is married to Kelly and they have two children, Jon, 14 and Vivian, 12.
Dr. Samantha (Sami) Richardson
Richardson grew up on Wheeling Island. After graduating from Wheeling Central High School, she earned a bachelor of science in exercise physiology from West Virginia University and a doctorate of medicine from Marshall University. She did her residency at Riverside Methodist Hospital and chose OB/GYN as her specialty.
“I wanted to take care of people, wanted to be in a position where I could do right by patients and I felt like being a physician was a good place to accomplish that,” said Richardson.
When she was in medical school, she said they rotated through many specialties, but she really loved OB/GYN because it was surgical, but it was also primary care based.
“I liked that you could take care of the patient year after year,” said Richardson. “I love that are a part of some of the biggest and happiest days of the patient’s lives.”
“I was raised in a very close family setting,” said Richardson. “Since I was raised in a small town, I could go outside and play with the neighborhood kids and the moms would call us back in at the end of the day.”
Richardson said she really wanted her family to have the same upbringing as her.
“My goal was to move my family here so we could have that same kind of environment. It felt very safe here. We have a great community here and people always help each other. I think Wheeling is a great place to live in general, just with all the renovations going on downtown. They are kind of giving back to the community and making it a place where everybody wants to be.”
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