5,000 babies delivered, 50 years of medicine and four military medals

By Ansley Franco

Ronald Orso, MD still recalls visiting his sister and her husband, who was a Tulane medical student, when he was 11 years old. As his brother-in-law made house calls to treat sick children in the city’s neighborhoods, Orso got his first glimpse of a doctor’s life. Celebrating 50 years of practicing medicine in Birmingham and central Alabama, that early spark of inspiration still drives him through his career.

During medical school, Orso initially planned to become a pediatrician — until the day he delivered his first baby. “The first time I delivered a baby, I realized that was what I wanted to do. It was so special, and it’s still special that it impressed me so much,” he said. “It was something that you could actually put your hands on and do. It was so rewarding to look at the faces of the mother and father.”

Over his 35-year career in obstetrics, Orso delivered nearly 5,000 babies. But in 2006, he shifted his focus solely to gynecology. Around the same time, a friend who owned an urgent care clinic asked him to help fill a temporary shortage of physicians. Orso agreed to work part-time until the clinic was fully staffed. 15 years later, he’s still there, providing care in urgent care alongside his gynecology practice.

“The thing that attracts me to it is that I get to do things I don’t normally see,” Orso said. “To work in urgent care you have to take courses and get current on treating ear, nose and throat problems, orthopedic problems, reading chest X-rays and reading EKGs. So it involved about a six-month period of really intensive study to get boned up on that.”

Since beginning his career in obstetrics and gynecology in 1975, Orso has witnessed significant changes not only in his field, but in medicine as a whole. Advancements in technology like ultrasounds, MRIs, PET and CAT scans, have revolutionized modern healthcare, giving healthcare professionals the ability to see inside the human body in ways that weren’t possible when Orso was in medical school.

“I believe that physicians that have been in medicine as long as I have, we all recognize how much it’s changed and how so important it is for us to have a lot of continuing medical education,” Orso said. “You have to stay up, you have to do courses. I do a lot of mine online, but there are also continuing medical education courses everywhere.”

While balancing his medical practice, staying current with advancements in healthcare technology and raising a family, Orso also served as an active colonel in the Alabama Army National Guard from 1972 to 2005. He joined the Guard after graduating from medical school. “I joined initially because I didn’t want to be drafted before finishing my residency, and then it became apparent to me that I really loved what I was doing,” he said. “And so when the six years were up and it was time for us to get out, I wanted to stay in.”

In the National Guard, Orso was able to intersect with the community on a number of occasions — running clinics for people with no insurance in southern Alabama and setting up a triage unit when a tornado hit Birmingham in 1998. He also served in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm for about six months.

His service led to four medals. The most recent was the State of Alabama Distinguished Service Medal in 2006. “Those honors mean a lot to me,” Orso said. “I just love what I did. I love the military, and I love the fact that I was able to participate in Operation Desert Storm, Desert Shield, and we did a good job in taking care of folks.”

Orso is no stranger to recognition. In 2017, he was named one of b-Metro Magazine’s Top Doctors. “It was an honor to be named. It motivated me to continue to be the best doctor I could be, to keep up with modern medicine and to certainly be more attentive to my patients’ needs,” he said.

After 50 years of practicing medicine, Orso says he’s at the point where he needs to slow down a little instead of speeding up, and traveling is on he and his wife’s list of to-do’s. “As a physician, you always say, ‘later on, we’re going to travel.’ And so those years passed by, and my wife and I realized that we haven’t traveled to a lot of the places that we wanted to see,” he said.

Throughout his career, Orso often told his wife that he genuinely enjoys going to work every day. He encourages young physicians to do the same by choosing a field they are truly passionate about.

“I feel sorry for those physicians and everybody else who dread getting up and going to work. I don’t know how they do it. It’s hard enough when you love what you do,” Orso said. “So I think the main thing for young physicians is they should choose something that they really love to do before they sign on the bottom line for a residency.”