Dr. Douglas Downey has joined the surgery staff at Madison Hospital. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Dr. Douglas Downey, general surgeon at Madison Hospital, is no stranger to the medical profession.

Downey’s father works as a professor of physiology at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. “I grew up around doctors and medical students and was always fascinated with the profession,” he said.

He chose the medical field “to take care of people. There’s no greater personal satisfaction I get than making people feel better.”

Originally, he envisioned family practitioner or orthopedic surgeon as his specialty.

However, he watched his first gallbladder operation as a third-year medical student at Huntsville Hospital “and fell in love … with the technical procedure (and how the surgery) made such a tremendous difference in the patient’s course,” Downey said.

In 1999, Downey earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of South Alabama. He graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine in 2003.

After residency, he was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Fla. and practiced at Eglin Hospital for five years.

Downey sees patients of all ages and performs all general surgical procedures. These surgeries include appendectomy, lap and open hernia repair, abdominal wall reconstruction, laparoscopic procedures, splenectomy, lap and open colon resection, breast surgery, venous access and melanoma.

In 2012, Huntsville Hospital hired Downey in anticipation of Madison Hospital’s opening. “I’m excited by the amount of growth I have seen in the area over the past 11 years since we left the area,” he said.

His wife Sara works for Dynetics as an electrical engineer. Their children are Amina, 14, a freshman at Bob Jones High School; Amir, a fifth-grade at Rainbow Elementary School; and 16-month-old Amara.

Sara Downey has relatives in Madison and Huntsville. “We’ve seen the quality of the schools and wanted to raise our children in the Madison community,” Dr. Downey said.

Downey is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and Madison County Medical Association.

Downey’s office address is 8375 U.S. 72 W. For information, call 256-265-5951, email to douglas.downey@hhsys.org or visit Madisonalhospital.org.