Dan E. Butler, M.D.

A farm boy who grew up on a wheat farm in Oklahoma raising cattle and hogs, Dr. Dan Butler started his education in a one-room schoolhouse with eight grades and one schoolteacher. Graduating from high school with twelve in his class, two boys and ten girls, he started his college career at Oklahoma State University, which was interrupted by his joining the US Coast Guard.

In the Coast Guard, Dr. Dan became a Hospital Corpsman and traveled to both the South and North Poles, and in his last year, he worked as a search and rescue helicopter air crewman, learning how to fly while in the Coast Guard.

After his service, Dr. Dan returned to OSU and completed his degree. The University of Oklahoma accepted him into medical school and on graduation, he went to Portland, Maine as a Family Practice resident. Dr. Butler was then accepted into an Orthopaedic residency program in Kansas City and went on to Cook County Hospital in Chicago, learning and teaching Microvascular Hand surgery.

Dr. Dan found that the big city life was not for him and he returned to Oklahoma to start his private practice doing orthopaedics and hand surgery. After twenty years, he moved to DeRidder, Louisiana, starting an individual orthopaedic practice. He had to retire due to hand problems after six years but a friend talked him out of retirement, entering into the field of Occupation Medicine.

Dr. Butler now wants to draw on his knowledge of orthopaedics and family practice and the use of medical marijuana for controlling medical problems as he is averse to using opiates for treatment.