Brandon Ireland’s Story

While playing in an AAU basketball game last February, the opposing team went on a fast break for a lay-up and missed it, so I went up to grab the ball for the rebound and landed the wrong way. I knew right away that something snapped by the pain in my knee.

My mother immediately called her employer Dr. Charles McHugh for guidance and he said to come into the office. He took a look and ordered x-rays and an MRI. It turned out that I had torn my ACL. Dr. McHugh saw that the results of those tests got to Dr. Nancy Cummings of Franklin Health Orthopaedics. Dr. McHugh serves on the executive committee of the Maine Medical Association with Dr. Cummings and he says she is one of the best ACL repair surgeons in the state. So trusting his judgment that’s where I went despite the more than 4-hour drive one-way. But that didn’t really matter; as an alternative I would have had to have gone to Bangor anyway for the surgery. So why not travel an hour and a half more to be seen by one of the best surgeons in the state?

I had actually seen Dr. Cummings a year earlier when my other knee had been bothering me. I had seen a specialist in Machias who recommended surgery, but I wanted a second opinion. Dr. McHugh suggested that I go to the sports medicine clinic at Franklin Health Orthopaedics. Besides Dr. Cummings, staff from the Physical Rehabilitation Department at Franklin Memorial Hospital including a physical therapist and athletic trainer are on hand during the evaluation. Dr. Cummings recommended physical therapy. So I started physical therapy and she was right—it did relieve the pain and discomfort.

The day of my surgery I got right in to the operating room and everyone was so nice. Dr. Cummings and the surgical team at Franklin Memorial Hospital performed a textbook ACL surgery so that I was in and out of the hospital and on my way to recovery just hours after my surgery.

I'm now looking forward to a great basketball season at Woodland High School.