Sports medicine now offered at Shriners Children's Shreveport; new gym opens

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) – Shriners Children’s Shreveport is now offering a new specialty and opened a new facility on Thursday, November 14.

Sports medicine is now offered at the facility located on Samford Avenue. Officials at the medical facility on Thursday also cut the ribbon on a new sports medicine rehabilitation gym designed to help children with sports-related injuries.

“We are excited to add this new service line. It is the first service line we have added in a long time. So it feels great to be able to officially add sports medicine,” said Shriners Chairman Jerry Defatta.

“When you work with adults, your job is to get them back to work. Well, play is work for kids, so we want to do anything we can to encourage them to play again,” said Damian Duhon, Shriners director of therapy services.

This is the third care specialty offered at Shriners. The facility began offering pediatric orthopedic services in 1922 and added cleft lip and palate care in 2012. This new specialty will include a team of healthcare professionals including an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine, an athletic trainer, physical therapists and others.

Shriners sought to add sports medicine to their services after realizing that approximately 25 percent of incoming children were dealing with sports injuries, which inspired the hospital to create a space that would provide the best benefit and help young athletes recover.

“Kids want to get back to their sports. They want to have fun while doing this. “A lot of places in this area are being built more for adults,” Duhon said. “Children are not little adults. They respond and heal differently from injuries, so this provides the type of equipment we need to accomplish those things.”

Shriners has the only sports medicine facility dedicated to children in the region.

The new gym has a large indoor area, batting nets, basketball hoops, exercise machines, fan bikes, pilot boxes, obstacles and special balance equipment. There is also a large grass field that will allow patients to imitate sports movements on a realistic surface. The new facility, along with existing movement analysis and radiology services, will increase the hospital’s ability to make a difference in children’s lives.

“We are truly excited to introduce sports medicine as our newest care specialty at Shriners Children’s Shreveport,” said Susan Bryant, PT, MBA, MHA, clinic director. “We feel that sports medicine is a natural extension of the care we provide and that we are uniquely suited to provide the expertise and specialized technology to help children recover from injuries and return to sports safely. With this new offering, we look forward to building on our strengths to provide care to more children in the most effective way .”