For many people, making a career change often involves a shift within similar industries. However, Myron Rolle, MD, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, Fla., opted to trade an NFL jersey, helmet and football field for scrubs, an operating room and a passion to treat young people with complex neurological conditions.
“I did my medical school [training] at Florida State University College of Medicine, [and I] did my residency in neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard in Boston … then one year of a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg (Fla.),” Dr. Rolle said during a “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast” episode. “I was a Rhodes Scholar where I studied at Oxford University. Medical Anthropology.”
Prior to getting into medicine, Dr. Rolle played for both the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL. Upon ending his sports career in 2012 to pursue medicine, Dr. Rolle said it was a choice rooted in his upbringing.
“My parents are from the Bahamas, and they always stressed the importance of education,” he said. “Even when I was young, they placed a priority on academic excellence, intellectual capital. [Even] though I was good at football and I loved playing it, it had an expiration date, and there had to be something else to transition to after I was done with my athletic ability.”
Dr. Rolle said “Gifted Hands,” a memoir by Ben Carson, MD, also helped spark his interest in pediatric neurosurgery. Now, Dr. Rolle focuses on treating some of the most vulnerable patients.
“Kids are very resilient, they’re tough,” he said. “If we can intervene in very vulnerable moments for them and their families, it’s a blessing. I enjoy operating on these young and marginalized communities, but also just children who come in the most adverse times in their life that need comfort and want to be cured, and want to rejoin their family and their communities.”
Dr. Rolle also uses his background in football and knowledge of medicine to help stress advocacy for head injury prevention, and stressed the importance of improving helmet safety technology and helmet compliance.
He said it is important to protect the brain, so people can function in a happy, peaceful and pain-free way.
“Traumatic brain injury is real, no matter if it’s an accident, you fall off a scooter or if it’s a sports-related injury,” he said. “I’m glad that I’m able to have a voice and impact in this particular part of our world.”
When asked what advice he would share with our next generation, Dr. Rolle stressed the importance of believing in oneself.
“Believe that you belong,” he said. “Focus on your process, focus on who you are and your purpose, your potential. Don’t be nervous about stepping out. You do belong…tell yourself and repeat it to yourself.”
