Charlotte Vrod, left, an aspiring tennis player, at the US Open with Alexis Chiang Colvin, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Mount Sinai who helped Charlotte get back on the court after tearing her ACL.
It’s one of those diagnoses every young athlete, and their parents, fear: A torn ACL—the anterior cruciate ligament, one of the major ligaments in the knee.
The injury can happen to young athletes who play sports that involve twisting, turning, jumping, and rapid changes in direction, such as soccer, basketball, football, and tennis.
“We are seeing a trend with so many more kids playing sports these days,” said Alexis Chiang Colvin, MD, Associate Professor of Sports Medicine in the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Colvin is also the Chief Medical Officer of the US Open and team physician for the US Fed Cup team. Mount Sinai is the official medical services provider of the USTA Eastern Section and the US Open.
Charlotte Vrod had a classic case of an ACL tear. An advanced junior tennis player, 14-year-old Charlotte was doing some intensive conditioning work at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in New York where she was training. During a drill, she sprinted and then stopped suddenly. That’s when she heard and felt a pop, and felt her left knee cave in. She could barely walk. Her trainer could immediately see something was wrong.
Charlotte and her mother chose to return to Mount Sinai for her knee injury where she had had previous orthopedic care. She saw Dr. Colvin, who discussed treatment options with her and her mother. Ultimately, they decided to proceed with ACL reconstruction in order to allow her to pursue her dream of playing college tennis. Without surgery, Charlotte would have trouble even playing tennis for fun, according to Dr. Colvin.
A week later, she had the surgery to reconstruct the ACL—a ligament which provides stability in the knee—and to repair the meniscus, a pad that forms a cushion between the bones of the knee. One reason she and her family picked Dr. Colvin was knowing that she had worked with some of the world’s top tennis players at the US Open.
After eight months of rehabilitation, Charlotte, now 15, has resumed playing tennis. She’s optimistic about the future, and so is Dr. Colvin, who visited with her at the US Open this year.
“The amazing thing about Charlotte is her attitude. From day one, she’s been so positive,” said Dr. Colvin, who specializes in the surgical treatment of knee, shoulder, and hip disorders and has extensive experience in treating athletes. “It has been a long road for her. But she has always rolled with the punches. Now I am seeing her on the US Open grounds as a spectator. I hope to see her in a couple of years playing on the courts.”
For Charlotte, who began playing tennis when she was five years old, the recovery period has been an opportunity to appreciate how much she enjoys tennis and how fortunate she is that she can expect to return to the game. But the recovery has required a commitment to physical therapy and a change in attitude.
“One thing I learned is that it’s okay to take a minute and stop playing because you need to take care of yourself,” she said. “Even though I was really into tennis, I had to stop. I will get back to it.”
In fact, she came to enjoy the physical therapy and working with a personal trainer on targeted strength and conditioning for tennis.
“It was hard, but surprisingly it was actually a lot of fun,” she said. “PT was always something I looked forward to. I went three times a week before school.”
Now she’s looking forward to returning in the fall to playing varsity tennis at Trevor Day School in New York City. Then she hopes to resume training at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy and playing in some USTA tournaments in New York and New Jersey. She says she’s a bit emotional about it.
“I am not going to lie. Recovery was hard both mentally and physically, but it was all worth it because I learned so much from this journey,” she said. “It was hard in the beginning because the courts felt so far away, but I got my head into the game and just put everything I had into recovery and self-care. As I was working harder and passing milestones, like starting to walk again without crutches or even when I was able to bend my leg an extra five degrees, it made recovery so much easier and made the courts seem closer than ever.”