Profile: Dr. Brooke Bredbeck

by Dawn Belloise

There’s a new surgeon at Gunnison Valley Hospital. Hired to reestablish the breast surgery service line, Dr. Brooke Bredbeck is dedicated to helping cancer patients as well as performing procedures and general surgery. A Colorado native who grew up in Littleton, she fell in love with the area as a kid after hiking in the summer and then later with her husband as they bagged peaks. Although Brooke didn’t ski until she was in her early 20s, “I was very mad at my parents when I found out how much fun it was and what I was missing out on,” she laughs. Now, “I’m just a very average skier, but I get a high level of enjoyment compared to my skill level.”

Growing up as an only child, Brooke was a competitive swimmer. She later realized, “It lends itself well with surgery,” and notes that a lot of surgeons were into competitive sports or high-level music. After Brooke graduated from a Catholic high school in 2007, she attended Colorado State University (CSU). During her time at CSU, Brooke volunteered for a two-month study abroad program in Guatemala City in 2009 where she worked at a diabetic clinic, apprenticing with a podiatrist. The experience gave her an appreciation for people who live in lower- and middle-income countries. “They are tough as nails. We’d do procedures with little or no anesthesia and they were fine with it,” she says of the limited, nonprofit clinic. There, she tells, “People felt like they were part of their community. They’d all look out for each other. If you were friends with one of them, you were friends with all of them. You became everyone’s friends. It happens in smaller communities, like here. The extended family unity stays together even in a big city.”

At CSU, she majored in biology and minored in Spanish and English, graduating in 2011, but she knew as early as her freshman year that she wanted to pursue becoming a doctor. After graduation, Brooke took a year off before entering med school to work at Anschutz Medical in Denver in pharmaceutical research for the school pharmacy. “It was a way to get clinical trials experience. To be frank, I didn’t know what med school was going to be like,” and as it turned out, it was better than her expectations. “I look back and think med school was one of the happiest times of my life, especially at CU. They had people with diverse interests, intelligent and compassionate, and passionate about being outdoors. Instead of being competitive, it was very cooperative, we wanted to help each other up.” She graduated from CU Denver in 2016.

Brooke met Adrian Larson, and she smiles that it was a classic Colorado love story. She was playing ultimate frisbee during med school and he was team captain and drafted her onto his team. “The rest is history,” she smiles. They married in 2019. They have two sons; Malcolm is two and Santiago is four. When they married, Brooke had just finished her third year of a seven-year residency at the University of Michigan (UM) in Ann Arbor, from 2016 through 2023. She did two extra years there as required by UM since there’s a research component built into their residency. Brooke’s focus was research in surgical oncology, although she did “a little bit of everything,” she tells. 

However, Brooke decided that she wanted to be out in the community instead of in research. “I wanted to pursue a community practice rather than academic. I loved taking care of cancer patients.” So, she pursued a job that she actually wanted. She flexed out of being a research surgeon to take her first job with a group of eight surgeons in southwest Michigan in 2023. “The administration wanted all the surgeons to be specialized but the group I was in wanted to be more generalists. I loved that and it’s what I wanted. As particular to that job, one of the things I was able to do was steer our breast surgeon line with quality improvements as head of Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative, which was statewide and also as the site leader at our institution.”

She was there for two years before she had to look for a job elsewhere to accommodate her husband’s job relocation with IBM. When Brooke saw a position open up for a general surgeon at the Gunnison Valley Hospital, even though it wasn’t in the cards for her hubby’s employment, they decided that the opportunity to move back to Colorado was something they couldn’t pass up. “We love this area, the Elk and San Juan mountains are close to our hearts. Moving to Michigan from Colorado, it was hard to get used to the grey blanket and the gloom. Clouds come in November and don’t leave until mid-April and you don’t see the sun for that entire time. No bluebird days.”

After securing the position at GVH, she gave three months’ notice, they sold their house, packed up and moved in mid-August last year.

Hired to reestablish breast surgery and the breast program, Brooke explains, “In order to give comprehensive care you must have diagnostic capabilities, which is the ability to properly diagnose cancer. Gunnison Tough (formerly Tough Enough To Wear Pink) was instrumental in getting us access to 3D mammography and the technology to do breast biopsies. For a few years we’ve been able to do those and MRIs but if a woman got a diagnosis from a biopsy, we weren’t able to do the surgery to remove the breast cancer. People had to go to the Front Range or Montrose to get the surgery.” And that’s where Dr. Brooke comes in. Now women can get all the treatments, except radiation, at GVH as well as their surgery.

But she also notes that, “It’s not as simple as just bringing in a surgeon because you need a whole team.” She’s that expert surgeon but also, she’s managing all the other moving parts from staff to equipment, “to ensure we have the right tools for the right patient. I really do care a lot about my patients, and I have the bandwidth to be able to do a two-hour consultation now. I can be the facilitator to get them to their therapy as quickly as possible. I think I can make a huge difference in this community to make sure patients get everything they need as quickly as possible. I came here because it’s a generalist practice. It’s a huge reason I love this job so much because I get to be a surgeon for whatever people’s needs are.” Another benefit Brooke brings to the table is, “I have on speed dial all the world experts in every surgical condition. To be able to provide that expertise in the valley is helpful so people don’t have to travel to get it.”

As new residents of the valley, Brooke says her family has been super busy. “I signed up to do a full Ironman triathlon in Lake Placid, New York in July,” she says excitedly. “I did the half marathon race in training this May in France.”

She feels the bonus of moving to the Gunnison Valley was having a little more time to do the things they want to do. “We’ve done hiking but no peak summiting since we’ve gotten here,” she says and adds that once she’s done with the Ironman, she’ll be committed to learning how to mountain bike this summer as well as getting outdoors with the family even more. “I love the Cochetopa for camping. We’ll start small and close to home until the kids get older,” she says. Brooke sees this valley as her long-term home and looks forward to raising their kids here. “I feel more at home in the mountains than anywhe else, and I really love this community.”