Imagine slamming into a tree going more than 20 miles per hour with only the protection of a helmet. Imagine that same scenario, but as a petite downhill skier getting hit so hard by a snowboarder that you are lifted off the snow and thrust into a pine tree becoming a human airbag. According to […]

Emmanuel Morris was anxious for his sophomore year at Hinsdale South High School to begin. After all, he earned Most Valuable Player and All-Conference baseball honors his freshman year so his future appeared to be on track to achieve his dream of playing Division I college ball and maybe even in the pros. He also […]

Returning home after a vacation is never fun. For Susan Swanson, though, leaving her Michigan vacation with friends changed the next year of her life. Leaving the hotel lobby, Swanson slipped on the hotel atrium floor and crumpled to the ground with her left leg bent backwards at 180 degrees. From the immediate and excruciating […]

After sitting at a desk all day managing insurance investments, Scott Edwards looks forward to his recreational activities of running and playing hockey. However, Edwards is not just a casual participant. He plays on several hockey clubs, as well as pick-up games when teams need a strong forward. During a fast-paced club game, Edwards raced […]

Steve Quirk admits he hasn’t always been a model patient. Like the time he was running within days of his first knee surgery because he had less than one month to prepare for the New York Marathon. Just so happened he ran past the home of Dr. Steven Chudik who had performed Quirk’s knee surgery […]

If you ask Greg Beggs, patent lawyer, gardener, golfer, former Downers Grove Village Zoning Board and Plan Commission member, Downers Grove Chamber of Commerce enthusiast and grandfather of 10, success throughout his life came because he was in the right place at the right time. His legal career began in a modest way.

No good deed goes unpunished according to the adage. Unfortunately, Robert Kmoch experienced the maxim firsthand when he and fellow fishing club members were setting a pier as part of their fishing club’s membership obligation. Kmoch slipped while carrying a shovel and landed awkwardly on his left arm. He knew instantly he’d hurt his shoulder […]

You may know a little girl who always wanted a pony, or maybe you were that girl. Sarah Lewensohn was. At a young age, she took lessons and participated in local competitions, but that is as far as her riding went. However, she carried her love of horses and dream of competitive showing through college, […]

Since 2008, participation in hiking and backpacking in the United States has increased 62 percent to more than 47 million people. Mark Frantz is one of them having backpacked since the early 1990s among the beauty of the Rockies, Sierras and Teton mountains, as well as the Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, and many others. According […]

Next time you take an escalator, think of Jim Dombro. He rides one at least twice a day in Chicago’s Union Station on his way to and from work. However, one rainy October day on his way home Dombro was walking, not riding, down the escalator when his foot slipped and he fell backward on […]

Kathy Irwin’s weekends are filled with swimming and gymnastic meets, and basketball, soccer, hockey and baseball games. However, they weren’t before Dr. Steven Chudik with the Steven Chudik MD Shoulder, Knee and Sports Medicine Injury Clinic replaced her two arthritic knees. Just the thought of walking across acres of soccer fields over uneven ground, or […]

If you’ve never seen a rugby game, the best way to describe it is football without helmets and pads. As a full-contact sport without protective gear, rugby players are prone to orthopaedic injuries—just ask Shawn Bastic, former University of Illinois—Chicago (UIC) and founding member of the Chicago Riot Rugby Club. While playing rugby for UIC, […]

Robert Nutt says he is retired, but his daily planner paints another picture. As president and managing director of Paceline Advisors, a strategic business and financial consulting firm Nutt created after 30 years in corporate finance and operations, he travels constantly and volunteers for three organizations and businesses. His hectic schedule does not leave much […]

Most people in Northern Illinois will remember the winter of 2011 for the Ground Hog Day blizzard. Tony Santi, founder and president of J2 Santi, Inc. custom homebuilding, youth athletic coach and weekend athlete from Western Springs, Ill., recalls it differently. In January that year, Santi slipped on his icy sidewalk. “I reached back to […]

One minute 8-year-old Matt Cesario was sitting atop a swing set with a neighbor and the next he was hanging from the side support brace by his right knee—a twist of fate that spared Matt’s spine and changed the course of his young life for the next five years. Matt can’t recall much from the […]

With barely 5 minutes remaining in the Illinois Class 8A state championship final, the No. 2-rated Bolingbrook High School Raiders trailed the No. 1-rated Loyola Academy Ramblers from Wilmette, 17-14. Junior Bolingbrook quarterback Aaron Bailey was in the toughest game of his life, but one he and his teammates will remember the rest of their […]

Teaching your children to snowboard should be a fun and rewarding experience, or so Nick Nagel thought until he found himself planted face down in a snow bank with a shoulder injury. However, it would be a year later with many league hockey games in the record books, as well as elbow surgery, before Nagel […]

The last thing a highly recruited high school athlete wants to hear is they are going to miss playing their senior year and potentially lose a Division 1 opportunity because of an injury. That is what Lyons Township (LT) High School football and All American lacrosse standout, Kyle Barrett faced when his left knee began […]

Kevin Kucera is among the countless people who suffer aches and pains after they move, lift, push and pull things. However, the day after Kucera moved a heavy display on his own at work, his shoulder was exceptionally sore. Kucera, an customer service representative whose clients include “big box” hardware stores, knew his arm pain […]

Imagine being a young mother and not able to lift or hold your baby, reach into the clothes dryer, back your car out of the driveway, or even reach for a cup in a cabinet without the fear of a shoulder dislocation. For Debbie Brand, those were just some of the daily challenges she faced […]