Health Sciences Newsletter Summer 2019
Photo by Adrienne Thurston
Student Interns at Boston Children’s Hospital by Erin McCoskey During the summer of 2018, I interned at Boston Children’s Hospital in the orthopedic department. The hospital is known for being No. 1 in the nation for pediatrics and is also where Dr. Lyle Micheli founded dance medicine. I shadowed, assisted and learned from some of America’s finest orthopedic doctors at both the main Boston Children’s campus and the dancemedicine-specific Micheli Center. Many of the injuries I saw in the orthopedic department were due to tendinopathy and tendinitis, which were caused by overuse. Even the dancers and gymnasts tended to be excruciatingly tight in their hamstrings and Achilles tendons, so their bodies reacted by using incorrect muscles, resulting in injury. Among the most severe of injuries I saw were a tibial stress fracture in a five-year-old, many L5 stress fractures (spondylolysis), concussions and infrapatellar tendon tears. Along with clinical experience, I observed steroid injections at the Micheli Center. Despite the initial pain and discomfort the patients felt, I was amazed at how quickly they were relieved of their pain after the injections. A psoas injection even saved a dancer from needing a hip replacement. During my internship, I served as a research assistant by collecting data and taking measurements for a study on the Bridge-Enhanced ACL Repair (BEAR) method
of ACL reconstruction. I observed the new way of repairing the ACL in the operating room, assisted the doctors with the write-ups for the research study and took patient data for the study. Being a sports medicine physician entails a great deal more than simply diagnosis and rehabilitation. Sports medicine physicians have to be the bearer of bad news to young people who love their sports and sometimes are hoping for a career in that particular craft. As an ex-dance athlete who sustained her own career-ending injury, I truly felt the pain that these patients were going through. The idea that I could do something to help young people continue their athletic careers even after an injury inspires me to earn an M.D. in Sports Medicine.