How did you become interested in orthopaedic surgery?

I grew up with a single mom who was a pediatric nurse practitioner. I went to work with her during summer breaks. I spent a lot of time in a primary care office seeing kids come in and out, so I knew pretty early on that I wanted to do something within medicine, and I likely was going to do something within pediatrics.

Then, in medical school, when we had our anatomy lectures and classes, I was really fascinated by the muscular skeletal system and the idea that you could look at someone from the outside and understand what’s going on inside. For example, with hand tendons, you can move your hand a certain way, and that tells you something about how the hand inside is working. That’s how I made the switch to orthopaedics. Pediatric orthopaedics fit what I was looking for really well — the idea of being able to follow a child from almost near birth through adulthood, and to have a prolonged impact on them.

I treat a large variety of conditions and see lots of different patients now, from an adolescent having pain from sports to a child born with a congenital difference. I particularly specialize in limb deformity reconstruction and lengthening — where one leg might have a bowing to it or might be shorter than the other. I’m doing procedures to either reconstruct the joints or lengthen a limb and get the leg straight so we can get them back to being active. Children are so resilient. All they want to do is get back to playing.

My goals are to make sure that everyone in the room understands what’s going on, what our treatment options are and what our ultimate plan will be. You don’t want a kid to feel like we’re doing something to them or at them, or that they’re not involved in the process. 

Learn more about Dr. Honcharuk