I saw Dr. Ballard back in the day (2008). He was at St. Joe's in Orange. I noticed the same credentials mentioned by Nospam. At the time I was deciding whether to try to get work comp or not. He said not to get surgery through work comp. He said I would get fiddle-fu*ked around by the work comp doctors. I saw him one time and he wanted to schedule surgery the next week. I asked him if I would be able to surf again and he said he had done the surgery on a UCLA waterpolo player and he was doing very well again.
At the time, I was afraid to get my rib removed and opted to try the pec minor surgery with Dr. Sanders in Colorado (did nothing for me).

For some reason, I think he worked with the Dr. in the San Frisco area who does the supraclavicular approach and that is where he learned it. I also recall some people reporting bad experiences with the surgery from the Dr. in San Fran. I'm sure all Dr.'s have some bad outcomes. However, I have not heard any bad expreiences about him.

I'm sure he is a very capable surgeon and has good experience with this surgery. Please keep us posted on your recovery.

--- best of luck to you. I hope you have an awesome recovery.