as told to Cait Barnett

Opeolu M. Adeoye, M. D. works in the ER and UC's Neuro-Intensive Care Unit

I’ve wanted to be a heart surgeon since I was 11 years old. I really tried to find other things to like, but I couldn’t find anything I liked as much as surgery. I came to Good Samaritan in 1989 to train. Almost 10 years ago we got our first robot and I realized very quickly I’d have to travel to Europe to learn how to use the technology. That was where I first learned about the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure, and I went back to Europe to study it further. It got approved in the United States in 2011, and we did our first ones in April 2011 and about 30 since.

The shoulder’s a really cool joint, always living on the edge. It’s a fine balance of mobility and stability. Too much movement, people dislocate. Not enough, people are stiff. Athletes, for whatever reason, seem to have a lot of trouble with their shoulders. The things we ask athletes to do—throwing a baseball, serving a tennis ball—we probably weren’t designed to do. That means problems.