Features

UC doc heads to Salt Lake to help Paralympics

By Paul Meznarich, Special to the Daily Planet
Saturday March 09, 2002

MIDWAY, Utah – Laughter erupts from down the hall in the direction of the medical room. Cross country skiers hoot and holler as they plunge into a natural hot spring to work on their “lung capacity.” An anxious athlete lets go of her fears and steels her resolve to compete with a reassuring “I know I’ll be OK.” 

It’s a safe bet that Dr. Cindy Chang is in the house.  

As the VIII Paralympic Winter Games are contested March 7-16 in Salt Lake City, the world will be focused on serious athletes engaged in serious competition. But in the midst of it all, there’s Chang whose best unprescribed treatment to health might be as simple as a joke or a reassuring hug. 

“She’s an extremely competent physician who demonstrates a great deal of caring for all her patients,” said Dr. Brent Rich, one of Chang’s colleagues on the U.S. Paralympic medical team. “And she’s pure high-energy.” 

Chang, the personable physician with the irrepressible smile, has taken a break from supervising the medical care of the 900-plus varsity athletes at UC Berkeley where she works as the head team physician, to tend to the medical needs of the nation’s elite cadre of athletes with physical disabilities. 

“When I was first approached to work at the Paralympics (for the 1998 Nagano Games), I was intrigued to be working with a population of athletes that I hadn’t had much experience with,” Chang said. “But I came away from Japan so moved and inspired by the athletes and their stories that I asked to be considered to help out in another four years.” 

It was a request the U.S. Olympic Committee was happy to comply with. Since Chang’s orientation with the Olympic medical staff in July 1996, she has been on their call list to assist at a number of national and international events. Due to her responsibilities as a doctor, clinical professor, wife and mother of two young children, however, it often became too hard to get away. 

“I know the Paralympics aren’t as high-profile as the Olympics, but I’m not doing this for any recognition on my part,” Chang said. “I just love the Paralympic athletes. They’re never disrespectful, they never complain, they’re very appreciative of the care they receive, and they’re very knowledgeable about their bodies and medical needs.” 

The Paralympic Games are the second largest sporting event in the world, conceding top honors only to the Olympics. The multi-sport competition showcases the talents and abilities of the world’s most elite athletes with physical disabilities in both winter and summer disciplines. Disability groups represented include amputees, blind or visually impaired athletes, athletes with cerebral palsy, athletes with spinal cord injuries and athletes who are affected by a range of other disabilities that do not fall into the aforementioned categories, such as multiple sclerosis or dwarfism. 

In Salt Lake, Chang is assigned to the U.S. Nordic Ski Team which is comprised of biathletes and cross country skiers who are visually impaired or use prosthetics or sit-skis to negotiate the hilly terrain of Soldier Hollow, the same venue used during the Olympic Games three weeks earlier. During that time, Chang will be staying in a home near Soldier Hollow with a majority of the Nordic ski team, a somewhat unruly bunch to say the least. 

“She takes a beating well,” joked Willie Stewart, a one-arm amputee and housemate. 

“Yeah, but she can definitely dish it back out,” chimed in Mike Crenshaw, another housemate and an amputee below his right knee. 

All joking aside, Chang’s personality and demeanor make her a perfect match for the team which let’s her do her job as a doctor even better. 

“We call her the ‘Question Lady’ because she wants to know everything about every little detail,” Crenshaw said. “But I think that’s what makes her such a great doctor.” 

“We all love her,” Stewart said. “She’s very fun and very charismatic.” 

And just as the athletes learn from Chang how to better treat their aches and pains, she learns from them about the world of adaptive sports and exercise – a knowledge she takes back to her patients in California. 

“When treating people with disabilities, it’s very important to keep them active in a healthy lifestyle,” she said. “Even though not everyone will become a Paralympian, they can still be involved in exercise in some way.” 

Chang also discusses her experiences with the Paralympics and adaptive sports movement with community organizations and the medical profession either at conferences or classroom lectures. 

“I think what these individuals accomplish as athletes is phenomenal, and what that means to all people, with or without disabilities as far as overcoming obstacles and leading healthy lives, is a message I want to share with the world,” Chang said. “To know that my involvement in their lives at these events help them come one step closer to achieving their goals makes me feel humble and proud all at the same time.”