Atrium Health Provider
Treats Only Children“I have always loved helping children and their families. In pediatric surgery, we deal with a wide variety of illnesses and don't have to focus on a single disease process or surgery.”
Dr. Thomas Schmelzer is board certified in general surgery and pediatric surgery. He focuses on pediatric surgery and has a special interest in thoracic (chest) conditions and chest wall deformities.
He is motivated to provide the best possible care to children and their families during stressful times. Seeing children recover and move on with their lives is incredibly rewarding to him.
Dr. Schmelzer has been named a Charlotte magazine Top Doctor multiple times and is one of the country’s busiest pectus surgeons, performing the Nuss procedure. He is involved in developing and testing new devices for the correction of pectus deformities.
He is particularly interested in chest wall deformities (pectus excavatum) and works with both new product development and educating surgeons on how to perform operations around the country.
Dr. Schmelzer received his bachelor’s degree at the University of North Carolina. He received his medical degree and his master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at the University of Louisville. He completed residency in general surgery at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center and a fellowship in pediatric surgery at Emory University.
Dr. Schmelzer loves spending time outdoors with his family, exercising, hiking, wakeboarding and wakesurfing. He was a varsity swimmer in college. He reads a wide variety of books, especially action and crime novels.
