For Dr. Casey Roehr, a fifth-year resident in orthopaedics at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, seeing patients and performing surgeries at University Medical Center (UMC) brings everything full circle.
“My mom worked at UMC and actually had me here,” says Roehr. “It’s kind of a crazy story. I was born here, and now I do surgeries here.”
Born and raised in Las Vegas, Roehr went to Eldorado High School, attended UNLV for pre-med biology, and went to the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) for medical school. He did his third and fourth year clinicals at UMC and stayed on for his residency there.
His ties with UMC go even deeper. “My mom worked at UMC for 23 years. She started in the lab, then became lab director, and then went into administration. She worked her way up the ranks.”
Even though his mom was in health care, Roehr’s interest in medicine was actually sparked by his dad, a veterinarian. “I watched him do surgeries when I was in elementary and middle school during the summer, and I would clean kennels and watch him take care of animals. That was what prompted my interest in medicine.”
With a fascination in medicine already developing, his participation in sports was what moved him toward orthopaedics.
“I grew up playing baseball and sports and injured my elbow and injured my shoulder and had teams of orthopaedic surgeons, and that just piqued my interest. Then, when I got into medical school my first summer, I rotated down here with Dr. Saldana, who was a trauma surgeon along with Dr. Wentz. I started shadowing those guys over the summer, and I was pretty much hooked.”
Throughout his residency, Roehr really came to appreciate the level of training that he gets at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine. Each year, residents from medical schools nationwide participate in courses held at sites throughout the country, having the opportunity to compare their skills.
“When you go to national courses, you never really know where you stand. Interacting with the residents in other courses,” he says. “I realize how good our training is here. You see where you are on the playing field because you get exposed to residents from all over the country. There’s hundreds of residents at these programs and they’re asking questions, and you’re doing technical skills. You really realize that, even though we’re a new program, I feel like our training is above and beyond most programs in the country.”
A different course is taken each year. In his second year, he learned about basic fracture skills. Third year offered a tumor/oncology course where he did nothing but musco-skeletal tumors. He was able to pick his own course the fourth year and chose an advanced fracture course. In his fifth year, he did cadaveric dissection and got experience putting plates and screws on broken bones.
Nearing the end of his final residency year, what’s it like looking back on his journey?
“Orthopaedics is such a broad field,” says Roehr. “We do so many different rotations, so many different fields… you have foot and ankle, joint replacement, trauma, spine surgery, hand surgery. You have to essentially do the whole body. In the final year, it finally all comes to fruition. It’s like you’re trying to understand everything, but there’s so much. It’s like drinking from a fire hydrant. Finally, during your fifth year, it all culminates in the end and it starts to click. I think it clicks for everybody at a different time but, for me, you start to feel comfortable in the operating room, comfortable with procedures, comfortable with injuries… and you just become more confident.”
Roehr will complete his residency and graduate in the last week of June. Then, he’ll have two weeks to study for board exams before he becomes board-certified in orthopaedic surgery.
Continuing this breakneck pace in July, he’ll have a week to move his family to Tampa, Florida, before he begins his one-year fellowship in orthopaedic trauma. “It’s a historic program. It’s one of the oldest trauma fellowships in the country. I’ll be working on broken femurs, broken tibias, pelvis fractures, car wrecks, motorcycle accidents, those types of things.”
After his fellowship, will the hometown boy come back home to practice?
“I would love to work at UMC with the UNLV faculty… with Dr. Kubiak, Dr. Daubs, and Dr. Wentz. That would be my goal, to come back here.”
And it’s not just because it’s his hometown. Roehr can’t speak highly enough about the program he’s been immersed in these last few years.
“One of the highlights of our program, and what I tell new applicants, is the faculty that we have. Starting with our chairman, Dr. Daubs, and all the way down. There’s not many programs I know of, especially in orthopaedic surgery, where you can talk directly to the chairman at any point in time. He’s so approachable and that’s followed down the whole line to all of our attendings. They are so easy to talk to, easy to get along with. That’s a huge selling point for our program here.”
Despite the newness of the orthopaedic program at the school of medicine, Roehr has seen amazing growth in the few short years he’s been in it. It wasn’t that long ago, no one had ever heard of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV or its orthopaedic program. That’s changing.
“Nobody knew about our program, and we didn’t have many rotators. Now, there’s so much interest from all over the country. We get a bunch of fourth-year rotators who come through and say, ‘I heard about your program,’ and you start to match people into fellowship programs and our name just grows and grows. It takes time, but I think we’re really getting our name out there.”
Roehr sees things only getting bigger and better for the orthopaedics department in the coming year, especially in the area of research. “Dr. Daubs and Dr. Kubiak have been such big influences in academia. Their research background is enormous. You go to national meetings and those two are known literally around the country for what they do. So, that’s our strong suit. They want to push research development further and each year they look at bigger and better things and making our research department bigger. That’s how you get put on the map as a program.”
What is Roehr’s ultimate goal? He wants to teach the students just like he’s been taught.
“Academia is something I’ve always been passionate about,” Roehr says. “Giving back what everybody has done for me and gotten me to where I am today. I want to give that back to future generations who want to go into orthopaedics.”
