HEALTH PAGES Provider Profile
Joseph Noonan, MD
W
Orthopedic Surgery
hen Joseph Orthopedics in Philadelphia. This gave me beyond just taking care of what happens to Noonan, MD, the opportunity to work with the Philadelphia be wrong with them physically. This means fractured Eagles, the Philadelphia Flyers and the I listen a lot. Of course, you are limited in his femur during Philadelphia Kixx soccer team. I was the how much time you can spend with a patient a college hockey onsite physician at two Eagles training so you learn how to figure out quickly what game, little did he camps, and I evaluated players at the NFL motivates them, what you may have in know that the road combine for two years. common with them. to recovery would What is it like when your exam room is the What has inspired you to practice medicine in lead him to a career sideline of an NFL team? Maine? in medicine. It was really exciting to be at the games, In some ways it’s like returning home. My Dr. Noonan but that comes with a lot of responsibility. family moved to Portland in the early 1960s provides experienced It changes the way you watch the game. when my dad got a job here. We moved specialized care in You don’t enjoy the game as entertainment around the East Coast following his work, and sports medicine, because your too busy watching for the eventually moved out to St. Louis in 1971. diseases of shoulder and elbow, as well mechanism of injury. The Eagles had two I was 15. I went to Deerfield Academy in as general orthopedics as part of WCMP doctors on the sidelines. If somebody was Massachusetts and then, as I said, Williams Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at Waldo hurt, one of us would take the player into the College for a year and a half. With six kids in County General Hospital. locker room and do an exam and the other the family, the cost was too much, so that’s WCMP Orthopedics and Sports Medicine would stay on the field. The main question when I transferred to St. Thomas. Out of offers services from minimally invasive was, can he go back into the game? And medical school, I practiced in Connecticut treatments to total joint replacements using and Rhode Island. I moved back to Maine to the latest technologies. The goal is to provide if not, when is he going to be able to play again? And you better be right about it. take a position at Franklin Memorial Hospital pain relief, increase function and help in 2016. I’ve been here ever since. patients get back to doing what they I really like the coast. People are love most. kind here and very accepting of dogs, “There are 56 players on a [an NFL] Dr. Noonan is accepting referrals. which is important to me. To learn more about Dr. Noonan, call football team and 80 players in training his office at 505-4398. To learn how are your passions outside of the a sports injury influenced his career camp. To be able to evaluate them day in What hospital? choice, read on. and day out, I had to develop good skills My son is a college hockey player, # # # and I try to watch his games. He and habits.” Is there a person or a circumstance plays at a Division III school in — Dr. Joseph Noonan Providence, Rhode Island. I’ve that inspired you to consider medical school? always liked going to my kids’ competitive events, regardless of the Yes, I was a freshman hockey Does anything from that experience help you sport. Both of my kids were soccer players. I player at Williams College and fractured my provide better care for patients at WCGH? never played soccer in my life, but you learn femur in a game when I was 19 years old. No doubt. When I was working with about it so you can support them along the Dr. Arthur Ellison took care of me, and he professional sports teams, I was fortunate way. That’s been important to me. inspired me. He was an orthopedic surgeon enough to work with and learn from one in North Adams, Massachusetts. Then, going I have a dog at home, and I like spending of the best sports surgeons in the world. through the rehab process to get back to time with her. Her name is Lucy and she’s There are 56 players on a football team and playing strength led me down the road to a Black Mouth Cur. They’re bred as hunting 80 players in training camp. To be able to medicine and to orthopedics specifically. dogs, although I don’t hunt. I never knew evaluate them day in and day out, I had to For unrelated reasons, I transferred to a new the term before, but she’s what is called a develop good skills and habits. You learn school after that and played three years of treeing dog. The dog in the Disney movie how to communicate, and you learn better college hockey in Saint Paul, Minnesota at “Old Yeller” was a Black Mouth Cur. Just like diagnostic skills. You learn how to come the University of St. Thomas. I was an allin the movie, they’re fearless. And yet Lucy up with a plan and to implement it. Of conference player when I was a senior. doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She course, there is a big difference between just loves people and other dogs. Does that experience influence the way you that population, which has youth on its side, work with patients now? compared to many of the elderly patients Will you tell me something about yourself that I I never tell patients about this experience but that I see at WCGH that have degenerative might not otherwise know? it does help me empathize with not just the problems. To me, it’s just as rewarding to My faith is very important to me and has athletes but with all my patients. I can better help one of my patients be able to reach in been since I was a kid. My family is Irish relate to how important their care is to them. the cupboard and get a glass from above. Catholic, two Irish Catholic parents and I have a strong sense of what it would mean Or to help them sleep better because they six kids. We used to take up an entire pew to them to lose physical function because of don’t have shoulder pain at night. I find in church. Faith is a struggle. So much an injury. satisfaction in improving the quality of their stuff happens in the world and you wonder lives. I understand that you worked with several why, but you keep fighting every day. I say professional sports teams. Tell us more about When patients come into your office for the first the rosary almost every day. I pray for the that. time, what will they experience? patients that I take care of. I pray on my I did a shoulder fellowship at the Carrell I think it’s my job to treat not just whatever way to work, when I have surgery, that I do Clinic in Dallas, and the clinic took care is physically ailing my patient but to try to well that day for the sake of my patients. I of many of the orthopedic needs of the figure out who that person is, what makes know it’s not popular these days to talk about Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Stars and the that person tick, what kind of a sense of your faith, which is why I’ve hesitated to Southern Methodist University Mustangs humor they may have, what kind of language mention this. I’m not fanatical. I just try to football teams. That experience helped me they may respond to. To develop some type do my best for my patients and hope there is get a position as a sports fellow at Penn of a trusting relationship with them goes someone else above me who is on my side.