For athletes, Dr. Johnny Benjamin is like the closer
you bring in when the bases are loaded with two outs in the bottom of
the ninth inning in a World Series game. Or he’s the guard you
pass the basketball to when there’s seconds on the clock and the
game is on the line.
As an orthopedic surgeon, however, Benjamin’s success enables
his patient athletes (both amateur and professional) to continue their
careers after a serious injury. His consultations also prevent possible
career-threatening ailments to occur in the future.
The chief of orthopedic surgery at Indian River Medical Center in Vero
Beach, FL, and a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons,
Benjamin has worked in the field of sports medicine for more than a
decade. His studies began at Baylor University, and he later completed
four years of medical school at the University of Texas. Benjamin completed
his medical internship and residency at Temple University Hospital in
Philadelphia, PA, and then a surgical spine fellowship at the Florida
Spine Institute.
“Being from the Texas, I played a lot of football,” says.
Benjamin. “Sports was always a part of me. When I concentrated
specifically on spinal surgery, I completed my orthopedic residency
at Temple University Hospital, where the whole concept of sports medicine
was developed. There, I developed a strong inclination in sports medicine.
With my lifelong interest in sports, training at a place like Temple
and living in a hotbed of sports here in South Florida, all these things
just came together.”
The list of patients Benjamin has either treated or advised is extensive—ranging
from football players to golfers. One group of athletes he has assisted
is professional boxers. Through his affiliation as medical director
with trainer and former world champion boxer Buddy McGirt’s gym,
based in Florida, he’s advised or treated world-class boxers such
as Arturo Gotti, Vernon Forrest, Antonio Tarver, and Laila Ali.
“Working with his or her trainer, I oversee a fighter’s
physical therapy in dealing with specific injuries,” notes Benjamin.
“Boxers throw thousands of punches and can develop problems with
their elbows, wrists, shoulders, and back, so we deal with them in physical
therapy. The exact therapy we design depends on what particular joint
is hurt. If there is a shoulder or an elbow problem, we design the therapy
accordingly.”
Benjamin’s role also includes identifying and correcting an athlete’s
approach to training if it is unwittingly causing physical problems.
One example is Vernon Forrest, a boxer who won the WBC Super Welterweight
championship. Forrest had two shoulder surgeries over the past few years.
Before the surgery, his shoulder hurt so much that he was getting cortisone
injections just trying to compete. However, to compensate for his aching
shoulders, Forrest was throwing punches incorrectly. So, once he had
the rotator cuff surgery and was well, Benjamin worked with Forrest
to “unlearn” how to throw those particular punches, since
his approach had given him an elbow problem.
Not Casual Athletes
Unlike other doctors, those physicians who work in sports medicine interact
with patients who literally count on them to make sure they can continue
to earn a living. These are usually not casual athletes working in other
professions—and who have the ability to spend weeks or months
to gradually recover.
“In the sports industry, a person’s earning capacity is
relatively short,” explains Benjamin. “For example, the
career of an average professional football player is three years. So,
you can’t take an entire year to rehab—that’s taking
away one-third of your life-earning capacity. One important difference
from the recreational athlete, however, involves the time these athletes
have available to rehabilitate. That dedication to treatment and the
level of fitness athletes keep is incredible and makes them more responsive
to these treatments.”
Benjamin’s day begins around 6 a.m. doing rounds. This time also
involves scheduling tests and handling other administrative efforts,
which is important because Benjamin’s availability is limited
once he begins the schedule of surgeries for the day. In his view, putting
the time in as early as possible to complete this work contributes to
the hospital running more effectively so that everyone on staff takes
their cues to do what’s necessary in support of the patients.
Benjamin emphasizes that students and professionals looking to work
in sports medicine need to be passionate about the field, given their
responsibilities, which include traveling with teams, receiving calls
at all hours, and dealing with the weird quirks and superstitions athletes
have in preparing for their game or fight. Benjamin embraces these situations
because he loves what he does. That attitude also carried him through
the 14 years of education after high school necessary to become an orthopedic
surgeon.
“A question I receive from young people involves how I survived
being in school for 14 years after high school because it seems long,”
he states. “That 14 years for me went by in a blink of an eye.
If you just wake up each day and do what’s in front of you, one
day you wake up and it’s over. You can’t believe it. I finished
my orthopedic residency and I was 31 years old—far from an old
man.”
In addition to a love of the profession, Benjamin sees two other qualities
as essential to succeed in sports medicine and in the medical profession,
in general. One is humility, given that you sometimes deal with physical
circumstances out of your control that you cannot always correct. The
other quality you need, especially during those times, is persistence
so you don’t become discouraged. However, if your focus is to
be your best in the profession, the rewards are many.
Benjamin adds, “The part of my job that has been the most consistently
gratifying is that many of the athletes I’ve met over the years
have developed a strong trust in me because of the medical care that
I’ve given them. They developed so much confidence because of
my medical ability and the way I carried myself that they started to
see me as a trusted person to ask advice on personal issues beyond medicine.
To me, that means that as a physician, I’ve done a good job.”
