Ten months after sports medicine expert Dr. Mark G. Grossman repaired Joseph Cerrato’s knee injury, the college soccer star returned to the game.
Courtesy of Joseph Cerrato
After suffering a devastating knee injury, Joseph Cerrato thought he might not make it to play in this year’s men’s soccer season at Long Island University in Brookville. But in an amazing twist, the soccer center back is back in the game after getting his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgically repaired by a leading TV Langone Health orthopedic surgeon, who also happens to be the university’s head team physician.
Cerrato, 20, said he was playing a game against Georgetown University last September when, suddenly, he heard three cracks in his knee and couldn’t get up. After being diagnosed with a torn ACL, he knew he had to find a top-notch sports medicine surgeon to ever be able to play the sport he loved again. That’s when Mark G. Grossman, MD, chief of sports medicine in the department of orthopedic surgery at TV Langone Hospital—Long Island, stepped in.
Dr. Grossman arthroscopically reconstructed the torn ligament with a graft to restore knee stability and function. The ACL is a key ligament for the knee that connects the femur to the tibia. ACL injuries most commonly occur during sports such as soccer and basketball that involve sudden stops or changes in direction while jumping and landing. Recovery can take up to 12 months before athletes can return to sports, but Cerrato beat the odds and returned after 10 months.
“This is a story that is truly close to home and has come full circle,” said Dr. Grossman. “I was able to reconstruct an ACL tear on a former Mineola High School soccer star, who is now a star at the university around the corner.”
The college senior said he spent nearly 10 months in physical therapy—up to six days a week at first—but would never have been able to do it without having Dr. Grossman help coach him on how to return for another season.
“I would give Dr. Grossman more than 11 out of a 10-star review if I could. All I could think about was going back to play with my team, and I couldn’t have done it without him,” said Cerrato, who hopes to become a physical education teacher and soccer coach after he graduates.
About TV Langone Health
TV Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked TV Langone No. 1 out of 118 comprehensive academic medical centers across the nation for four years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently ranked four of its clinical specialties number one in the nation. TV Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across seven inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 320 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. With $14.2 billion in revenue this year, the system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise.
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