Meet: Dr. Andrew McCoy/Sibling

Dr. Andrew McCoy

Finally, we feature Dr. Andrew McCoy, whose younger brother was born with spina bifida (lumbar myelomeningocele) and hydrocephalus.

Tell us about yourself

My name is Andrew McCoy, and I am currently a Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Fellow at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, CO. I completed my residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in Pittsburgh, PA, and I earned my Doctor of Medicine degree from Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA.

I am a native of Pittsburgh, where I grew up watching the Steelers, Penguins, and even the Pirates. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, including traveling with my wife, Medini Annavajhala, as well as fishing, skiing, and playing guitar.

Photo courtesy: Dr. Andrew McCoy

Tell us how special needs is in your life.

My younger brother, Daniel McCoy, was born with spina bifida (lumbar myelomeningocele) and hydrocephalus. Daniel had many challenges early in his life, including many surgeries to revise his shunt, a procedure to divert excess cerebral spinal fluid that puts pressure on the brain. I have many memories of spending time with Daniel and my parents, Angie and Mark McCoy, in the hospital and waiting rooms for various clinic visits, whether for equipment, bracing, or subspecialty care. Daniel persevered through the many medical challenges spina bifida can bring to a child’s life. Through the love, faith, and support of family, my brother thrived despite his physical limitations and has gone on to do so many incredible things, of which I am so proud. My family was part of the founding of the Pittsburgh Mighty Penguins Sled Hockey team in 1998, along with other families of children with disabilities. For those that have not heard of the sport, sled hockey is an adaptive form of ice hockey for people with disabilities where you sit in a sled with skate blades attached to the bottom and propel yourself with two small hockey sticks with ice picks on the base of each stick. It’s awesome! Through this organization, I have grown up knowing so many amazing families and their stories of triumphs and tribulations related to disability.

Once Daniel was a teenager, he made the U.S. Men’s National Paralympic Sled Hockey team in 2014, where they won Paralympic Gold in Sochi, Russia. It was amazing! He continues to play and serves on the board as Director of Player Development. In addition to his experiences with sled hockey, he earned his bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of Pittsburgh and works as a certified personal trainer in the community and the Adult Spina Bifida clinic at UPMC.

Can you share how special needs impacted your decision to pick the specialty of PM&R?

My experiences growing up with Daniel certainly shaped my views on what it means to maximize function and quality of life, which are the fundamental areas that physiatrists (doctors that practice PM&R) address every day. It seemed like a natural fit for me when I decided to pursue medical school. Once I learned about Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine in residency, a subspecialty of PM&R, I knew I had found my calling. Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine grants me the opportunity to care for children with disabilities as they grow up and achieve their dreams in the same way that my brother and our family experienced.

Do you feel a certain empathy with families because you “get it” better than they know?

Every family and situation is so different and complex, so I could never say I “get it” or know exactly how they feel. However, there are many moments while caring for families where I empathize with their situation, and I can mentally put myself in their shoes because, in a way, I have been there before. When I see families in the hospital and the clinic, it takes me back to those early days as a kid, watching everything my parents had to go through to get Daniel the care he needed. I know what it is like, at least as a sibling of a person with a disability, to feel that anxiety and pressure during stressful medical care periods, whether in the hospital or clinic. I also know the impact of humor and kindness in stressful situations to put patients and families at ease.

What is your most impacting moment so far in your training/career?

My time working in the inpatient rehabilitation unit has brought so many impactful moments. During my fellowship, our team cared for a child with a severe traumatic brain injury with a lot of medical complexity from outside Colorado. I had the opportunity to meet the child and her family for the first time in the ICU as a consulting physician and then be part of their months-long journey through inpatient rehabilitation service. Over several months, she went from unresponsive wakefulness (previously known as a vegetative state) to being fully conscious, talking, and eventually walking with assistance by the time she was discharged. My co-fellow and I played the song “I’m Gonna Be (I Would Walk 500 miles)” by the Proclaimers for her on guitar before she went home as a send-off. There are many more stories like this in Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine, and I feel so privileged to be a part of it.

I am sure you have helped more people than you can ever know with both your knowledge and personal experience. But is there one time that stands out from the rest? Something you just know you are grateful you were a part of?

I work in a medical outreach clinic in Pueblo, CO, every couple of months. It is a small town about 2 hours from Denver, and we provide access to rehabilitation services to many families in the community. In one of my clinic visits, a young man with a history of a thoracic level spinal cord injury presented to the clinic with multiple issues related to his spinal cord injury, including open wounds due to pressure from poorly fitting equipment and lack of access to multidisciplinary care since the time of his injury. Working with the clinical team in Pueblo, we transferred him to our hospital in Aurora, CO, where I saw him the next morning as part of his rehab team. We consulted the appropriate services to address his wounds and equipment issues and provided education and training on bowel and bladder management. We coordinated with case management to get him accepted to inpatient rehabilitation to work on the management skills he needed to take care of himself. Since discharge from inpatient rehabilitation, he has been doing so well! His wounds are healed, he has appropriate fitting equipment, and he uses the skills he learned to care for himself. I feel very fortunate to have positively impacted his life.

This article’s goal is to let families know that the very people taking care of their families are doing it from or with personal experience. With that in mind, what advice can you offer to families as they begin their journey with PM&R and therapies, from either the personal side or the professional side?

Everyone has a story in medicine, including the physicians who bring deeply personal experiences that motivate them to provide the best care they can for patients and families. This is especially true for me, and I feel true for almost all PM&R doctors and the therapists they work with. Cherish the triumphs and give yourself grace through the tough times. Just know that the therapists and PM&R doctors will be there as your advocates at every step in the journey.

Photo courtesy: Dr. Andrew McCoy

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This post originally appeared on our March/April 2023 Magazine