Republished with permission from our partner, AlloSource.
Rachel was a typical college athlete: focused, intense, and determined. When a knee injury threatened her ability to complete her final soccer season, she simply played through the pain.
It wasn’t long before Rachel discovered she could no longer “grin and bear” her meniscus injury. She had to have the injured tissue replaced with an allograft—sidelining her for months from any physical activity.
“It was a difficult decision,” recalls Rachel. “But movement is everything to me. I knew I had to have the procedure.”
Rachel is back in competition. In fact, she completed the Hawaii Ironman 70.3 Triathlon in May 2009, something she only dreamed of prior to her allograft meniscus replacement. Inspired by her experience, Rachel chose orthopedics as her specialty in medical school and is currently a Research Fellow at Rush University Medical Center.
“My goal is to be helping patients the same way my surgeon helped me through allograft transplantation,” Rachel says.
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