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Surgeon splits her time between OR and dance floor
One physician has maintained dual passions of competitive dance and orthopedic surgery.
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Many surgeons will play music in the background as they operate. Only a few can say they danced to that very same music in Japan, Italy or England.
For Mercedes von Deck, MD, who has traveled the world as a competitive ballroom dancer, it is a reality.
“For me, it has been a matter of having different interests,” she said. If I dance in a competition and do not do as well as I had hoped, there is always that orthopedic ‘thing’ to fall back on,” she added.
Concurrent interests
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Image: von Deck M |
For von Deck, development as an orthopedic surgeon and a dancer came concurrently.
“I did some ballroom dancing in college, just socially, but I really started to like modern dance,” she said. “I actually liked it so much, I was not sure I wanted to go to medical school.”
After delaying her entrance into medical school for 1 year to pursue dance, von Deck began her medical education at Harvard Medical School in 1984. After her second year, she took another 4 years off to further pursue her aspirations in the field of competitive ballroom dancing. After that, she went back and finished her schooling.
“I was not planning to be an orthopedic surgeon,” she said. “I just thought that surgery was not something women did, actually. But somehow, taking the 4 years off … the world changed a little bit. When I returned to medical school in 1990, more women were surgeons; I had more role models.”
After medical school, von Deck said it became difficult to balance her profession with her passion for dance.
“During my residency, I did not dance much because I was too busy,” she said. “I would just dance when I had the time. After my last year of residency, I began to dance extensively. From there, I started dancing every day.”
Keeping up with family
Right now, von Deck works in orthopedics part time so she can spend more time with her family – she has three children – and keep up her interest in dance.
Despite the way in which her interests developed side-by-side, von Deck said the two have not mingled.
“Being involved in a sport like dance helps me understand my patients who are dancers and athletes, and understanding the anatomy may help my dancing,” she said.
Although dance can be a release from the pressures of the orthopedic world, she noted it has its own pressures.
“It is something that requires a lot of concentration, but it is something different than what you are normally concentrating on,” she said. “You cannot think of orthopedics when you are dancing.”
When asked which interest she would pursue longer, von Deck said “It is hard to say. One does not win out over the other. At some point, I will be too old to operate, but I hope I will still be dancing.”
For more information:Mercedes von Deck, MD, is an orthopedic surgeon with the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She can be reached at Cambridge Hospital, 1493 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02139; 617-665-1566; e-mail: mvondeck@challiance.org.