photograph by Shane Van Boxtel, Image Studios
The pop of her ACL tearing on the basketball court changed everything for Abbey DeBruin. What seemed like a devastating setback for the Kaukauna High School athlete became an unexpected turning point — one that would ultimately shape her entire career.
“That was my first foray into surgery and a ton of physical therapy, athletic training and rehab,” says the 2011 grad who lettered three years in basketball and was a first‑team all-conference and honorable mention all-state selection.
Instead of simply recovering and returning to the game, DeBruin found herself drawn to the medical side of her injury. The experience prompted her to enroll in a medical mentoring class in which she was able to shadow nurses, physical therapists and even a surgeon.
“That was eye opening to see just how cool the operating room was,” DeBruin says. “That started my path.”
After high school, DeBruin completed her undergrad degree at Northern Michigan University, where she also played basketball. (“I actually tore my other ACL in my last game of my senior year of college, so I have a lot of experience with orthopedic surgery [as a patient],” DeBruin says with a sheepish smile.)
She attended UW–Madison for medical school and residency and completed her sports medicine fellowship at the University of Virginia, where she served as a team physician for UVA and James Madison University.
In September, DeBruin joined Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Specialists (OSMS) in Green Bay, treating athletes and active individuals with advanced surgical and non-surgical techniques — from ACL reconstruction and rotator cuff repair to the innovative MISHA joint-sparing procedure.
As an athlete, DeBruin appreciates the tight team approach at OSMS, a doctor‑owned orthopedics, sports medicine, rheumatology and pain management practice.
“The group there is really special,” she says. “Being doctor-owned means all the decisions at the business are made by the [doctors] based on what they think is going to be best for their patients, not by an administrator who may have other priorities.”
DeBruin is the practice’s first female orthopedic surgeon and the only female sports medicine fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon in Northeast Wisconsin — only about 10% of sports medicine fellows are women and 6% of orthopedic surgeons overall are women.
“Orthopedic surgery is interesting,” DeBruin says. “We haven’t seen the growth of female orthopedic surgeons that other subspecialties have seen. I think a lot of times it’s the lack of mentors; seeing people like you doing it and making it in that world. That’s something that women in orthopedics are trying to do.”
And change is starting to happen. While only about 10% of practicing orthopedic surgeons are female, DeBruin says women make up more than 15% of orthopedic surgeon trainees in residence. “We’re going to see changes,” she says, “but it’s going to take time for that to shift into the practicing group just because it is so historically male.”
To help move the needle, DeBruin is an active volunteer with The Perry Initiative, a national outreach program that works to inspire female high school and medical school students to pursue careers in orthopedic surgery and engineering through workshops and mentoring.
“We’re trying to catch people earlier in their education and show them, especially women who might have an interest in STEM, that this is a really cool career path they might want to consider,” DeBruin says. “We don’t want people to have to get hurt like I did to learn this could be a career for them.”
However, DeBruin sees her experience as a patient as a major advantage as a surgeon.
“I think my patients appreciate knowing that their surgeon doesn’t just have sympathy for what they’re going through, but I feel empathy,” she says. “I know how much it stings to miss time and to not be able to do the sport that you love. That unique connection might make it just a little bit easier for them.”
The female factor
As DeBruin’s personal experience exemplifies, women are affected by certain orthopedic injuries at a higher rate than men. ACL tears are two to eight times more common in female athletes than male athletes. The American Joint Replacement Registry indicates nearly 60% of 2022 knee replacements performed in the United States were in women.
Despite that, DeBruin says the female experience isn’t always top of mind, but she is working to change that.
“There’s tons of excellent female sport surgeons in the U.S., but I think that there’s an opportunity here in this area for female athletes to have an interaction with somebody who reminds them a little more of themselves, who can relate to them and whom they might feel a little bit more comfortable with,” she says.
DeBruin hopes to soon see OSMS offer a female sports clinic — dedicated clinic time exclusively for female patients. She will also be leading an education webinar focusing on common knee injuries in female athletes on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. Visit osmsgb.com for more information.
