Montreal's Shriners Hospitals offers injured youth comprehensive sports medicine

About a year ago, 16-year-old Alison Koeppe had an operation to fix her knee.

The young runner, who plays soccer and basketball, tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and knew surgery would help, but she wasn't looking forward to it at all.

"I was scared because it was my first time doing the surgery," said Koeppe, a student at Lower Canada College in Montreal's west end.

And then after, she had a lot more on her mind. She wondered if she would be prepared to get back into sports while worrying she might get injured again. But now she's back on the horse.

"I had a track meet last week," Koeppe said. "Now I have a basketball tournament."

That's thanks to the interdisciplinary sports medicine program at the Shriners Children's Canada hospital in Montreal.

The program is focused on offering personalized care, said Dr. Thierry Pauyo. He's an orthopedic surgeon and the director of sports medicine at the Shriners. He operated on Keoppe. 

He said the program is aimed at helping any young person who has been injured while being active. No referral is required. It's free and patients and their families can book an appointment online.

"Kind of like a 360-degree treatment and we're going to touch all the spheres of their life affected by their injury," said Pauyo.

The team includes a nutritionist, sports psychologists, physiotherapists, a social worker and more. The hospital's motion analysis centre is also there to help with rehabilitation. The centre analyzes movements, then develops treatments and exercises to help improve those movements.

"There's really a big team around us, really to help the kids heal," Pauyo said.

"We know that when they get hurt, when they come to see us for a knee problem, it's not just their knee