From injured patient to practice owner Courtesy of Inland Northwest Spine Dr. Doug Blaty and Dr. Bret Dirks met in a Coeur d'Alene exam room, not a hospital hallway or a conference stage. Doug was 17, a running back recruited by the Oregon Ducks, sitting with a fractured spine after a mountain biking accident on Silver Mountain. He had dragged his bike five miles down the mountain before getting help. Dirks, then a neurosurgeon in Coeur d'Alene, delivered the news that Doug's