Blood Brothers

Photography by James Moore

Dr. Caleb and John Piatt didn’t start out with a career in medicine in mind, let alone wind up working for the same hospital. But some things are just meant to be.

The duo, who grew up five years apart in O’Fallon, Illinois, chose medicine almost by accident, starting with Caleb.

“I was a football and baseball player in high school and ended up getting a scholarship to play junior college baseball,” Caleb said. “Throughout the sports stuff, I had my own set of injuries which kind of piqued my interest in medicine. That’s when I started looking into medicine as being a potential opportunity. One thing led to another and ultimately, I felt led to pursue the medicine route.”

Caleb, 32, finished up his undergrad at Dallas Baptist University in Dallas, Texas, prior to completing medical school at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Missouri, and residency in Dayton, Ohio. While in Dallas, John took an interest in his baby brother’s studies.

“I graduated college in 2008 with an accounting degree but once I got out into the field, I quickly realized that wasn’t the kind of job for me,” John said. “I was working in sales after that and I really wasn’t happy with it because I didn’t feel like it fit my skill set.

“After talking with Caleb quite a bit when he was pursuing medicine, it got me into the idea of going that route as well.”

John, 37, made the decision to enroll in Des Moines University in Iowa and pursue a master’s degree that would allow him to work as a physician assistant. During this process, he and his wife lost their newborn, Malachi, which steeled his resolve even more.

“That was a big thing that drove this home for me,” he said. “We had a lot of good people around us, medical professionals, and I wanted to be there for people facing something similar and try to help them in tough situations like that.”

As for both brothers landing at Ozarks Healthcare, the story begins with Caleb interviewing for jobs following residency. Coming from a small town himself, he was impressed with West Plains and the opportunity to build a practice in an area that offered his children the chance to grow up in a safe and nurturing environment.

“For me, working in a small community, I feel like your staff members as well as your patients feel a little bit more like family,” he said. “It’s more close-knit. I wanted a situation where I could be engaged and involved in the community and my wife and I both felt like this was just an awesome place to raise the kiddos.”

In the process of interviewing, Caleb found out Ozarks Healthcare was hiring physician assistants, news he passed along to his brother. John also liked the community and jumped at the chance to work in Ozarks Healthcare's emergency department in 2019, followed by Caleb in the orthopedics department in 2022.

“When I started doing my clinicals in the master’s program, I did a month working in the emergency department,” John said. “I didn’t know if it was something that I was all that interested in initially, but once I did that month, I liked the variety of it. It was pretty fast-paced, which I liked. It’s cool to experience a lot of different things, and that’s what you get in the emergency department.”

Since landing in West Plains, the two brothers have relished the opportunity to spend time together. Both attend the same church, both are struggling to take up golf and their families see a lot of each other as well.

“Our wives are close and we live only a couple minutes apart,” Caleb said. “A lot of our life is interconnected at this point, which is honestly really nice because we haven’t had family around for the 10 years that my wife and I have been married and finishing all this school stuff. We’ve really been blessed to have family around. It was kind of a convoluted way of getting here, but we’ve both been very thankful and pleased the Lord brought us all together.”

The two brothers demonstrate a striking similarity in their demeanor and temperament, which is a big plus in their line of work. Asked to evaluate each other’s strengths, the two siblings demonstrate a healthy respect for each other in their respective roles as healthcare professionals.

“I would say John’s strength is he’s even-keeled and doesn’t get rattled,” Caleb said. “He can really diffuse an uncomfortable situation and not get fazed by it. He’s also a fast learner; from watching him in the emergency department and managing patients, he’s only been a couple of years out, but I’ve had a lot of his colleagues and superiors comment that he really picks up things quickly and has been able to handle the stresses of the emergency department, which is kind of its own animal.”

“The things that make Caleb good at what he does are his patient interaction skills, the way he communicates with patients,” John said. “He’s probably a little chattier and more sociable than I can be at times. Also, he’s very focused and very skilled as far as being a surgeon. He takes a lot of pride in the training that he’s done, and I think a lot of patients enjoy having him as their provider.”