Rachel was a typical college athlete: focused, intense, and determined. When a knee injury threatened her ability to complete in 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.”


Today, Rachel went back to 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 field of specialty in medical school as an MD candidate at Rush University Medical Center.

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