HCP Live—August 22, 2014
Do you remember that once-a-year feeling as a kid growing up when your birthday rolled around? So many presents; so little time. Which should you open first? The scenario may have prompted your parents to say that you looked like a kid in a candy store.
Remember that feeling?
Being a team physician for a professional sports franchise might not make a person feel like a kid in a candy store, but have no doubt, there is something very cool about it.
Growing up on Long Island, Struan Coleman, MD, played a wide variety of sports, including football, ice hockey, and lacrosse. He was also surrounded by friends and family members who were involved in medicine. But it was when he tore the meniscus in his knee during his sophomore year in high school that he began thinking about a career in sports medicine.
“Going through [the injury], and healing without surgery, which is what I did, is a very important lesson for me now as a surgeon,” says Coleman, who is now an orthopedic surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, as well as the head physician for the New York Mets.
Coleman says that, whether he’s dealing with professional or amateur athletes, he tries to treat patients conservatively.
“The body has great healing potential,” he says. “Strengthening the muscles around the injured area of the body can be very helpful.”
This story originally appeared on hcplive.com.
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