While her softball days were nearing their end, Richardson's medical career was taking off in spectacular fashion. After USC, she landed a fellowship at the prestigious Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic in Los Angeles, where she put the finishing touches on her skills as an orthopedic surgeon. There was a small competition, in fact, among leading clinics in California and Alabama that were trying to recruit her to their fellowship programs.
Once she started, partners at Kerlan-Jobe decided that they liked what they saw. "She was good with her hands," veteran orthopedist Neal ElAttrache observes. "Technical ability in the operating room was not an issue. And her interpersonal skills were outstanding. She could relate to young people, to elderly people -- to anyone."
Partway through her fellowship year, in fact, Richardson's two careers finally joined for a moment. She and ElAttrache were asked to operate on UCLA's best young softball player, Julie Adams. Something in Adams's shoulder just wasn't right. X-rays showed a tiny tip of a needle, broken off from a previous surgery. It was floating in the midst of Adams's shoulder. Extracting it wouldn't be easy. But everyone felt that it was Adams's best hope for a full recovery.
Waiting anxiously outside the operating room was Sue Enquist, still the UCLA softball coach. Finally the doors opened. Out came Richardson, dressed in green surgical scrubs. "Sue!" she exclaimed. "We got the needle out! She's going to be all right." At that moment, Enquist remembers tears forming, partly out of joy that her best young player would finally be healed, but just as much to behold what Richardson had become. The sweet-hitting shortstop of 17 seasons earlier was now a big-league surgeon -- and maybe even an all-star.
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