From Humble Beginning to Healthcare Frontline
Former sprinter Troy Woodard top surgeon at renowned Cleveland Clinic
Bob Sakamoto, Athletics Communications
7/24/2020
“When I told my mom I wasn’t going to accept any of the athletic scholarships I’d been offered and wanted to attend DePaul, she got angry and said she couldn’t help me financially. I said, ‘If God wants me to go there, He will find a way’. And that’s what happened.Troy Woodard
CHICAGO – In no small way does Troy Woodard epitomize the cornerstone of our American way of life while also serving as a living, breathing embodiment of a virtue held sacred by St. Vincent de Paul.
To the rest of the world, America at its true core is still the place where hard work can make your dreams come true.
Woodard’s inspiring rise from a humble, single-parent upbringing in Nashville, Tenn. to a highly specialized surgeon in one of the nation’s preeminent hospitals encompasses what DePaul is all about.
Just listen to how Dr. Woodard, who specializes in sinus and skull base surgery at the renowned Cleveland Clinic, originally found his way to Lincoln Park.
“I grew up in Nashville, and my mom Maedella Woodard was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and wasn’t able to work,” Woodard said. “We didn’t have a lot of money. Fortunately, I was a pretty talented athlete and had a dozen or so scholarship offers.
“I wanted to attend college in a big city and had an uncle who lived on the South Side. Visiting my uncle and checking out DePaul---I loved the city of Chicago and the DePaul environment.”
DePaul Athletics put together a financial aid package with academic scholarships as a partial payment for his college costs. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.
Woodard went home and took a photo of all his athletic accolades and accomplishments along with newspaper clippings heralding his prowess. He mailed that photo to Associate Athletic Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto and track and field coach Bill Leach. They came up with enough athletic scholarship money to cover the difference.
“When I told my mom I wasn’t going to accept any of the athletic scholarships I’d been offered and wanted to attend DePaul, she got angry and said she couldn’t help me financially,” Woodard recalled. “I said, ‘If God wants me to go there, He will find a way’. And that’s what happened.”
No stranger to overcoming adversity, Woodard joined right in as a sprinter and high jumper with a Blue Demon track and field program that succeeded despite limited resources.
Back in the 1990s, the team practiced in the hallways of Alumni Hall. On Tuesday and Thursday nights, the Blue Demons worked out at the Proviso West High School indoor track. Bryan Clay and Shamar Lott were his best buddies on the team and they all still text each other.
“I learned that even without the best facilities---hard work, dedication and self-discipline can still pay off,” Woodard said. “I was a sprinter and a high jumper on a team that despite the lack of facilities still finished in the top half of Conference USA.”
Graduating in 1999 with High Honors, Woodard encountered his next resource challenge.
“After being accepted to several medical schools, I had to fly in for interviews,” Woodard said. “We didn’t have the money and I didn’t want to bother my mom who was on disability. I didn’t even have a suit.
“I was raised a Baptist but started attending Catholic masses at DePaul and was the co-founder of the DePaul Gospel Choir. I wrote to Father Minogue about my situation, and DePaul began working to help me. They paid for my suit and a plane ticket to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.”
That launched a remarkable medical journey that saw him graduate from Johns Hopkins and eventually brought him to the prestigious Cleveland Clinic after completing his medical training in 2009. Now, he is on the frontline battling the coronavirus pandemic.
“After seeing what happened in New York back in March and April, we were growing increasingly uneasy about being able to accommodate large numbers of very sick patients,” Woodard said. “We shut everything down except for certain surgeries. Our governor Mike DeWine was proactive with a stay-at-home order, and we didn’t see the huge surge we had anticipated.
“We had more patients than normal but didn’t run out of resources.”
Dr. Woodard, the Cleveland Clinic, the city of Cleveland and the entire state are back on high alert after reports this week of rising coronavirus cases. DeWine issued a mandatory mask mandate for Ohio beginning on Thursday.
Just 24 hours earlier, Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force had warned state and local leaders of 11 cities (including Cleveland) that aggressive steps were needed to limit spread of the virus.
I’m really at risk and have to wear a new N95 mask for every patient. With Ohio’s gradual reopening, I’m very careful about protecting myself and my family.Troy Woodard
“Since I specialize in ear, nose and throat and perform sinus and skull base surgery, I do a lot of scopes of the sinus and nose,” Woodard said. “That’s where the COVID-19 virus lives.
“I’m really at risk and have to wear a new N95 mask for every patient. With Ohio’s gradual reopening, I’m very careful about protecting myself and my family. I take care of my disabled mom. I wear scrubs to work, and after I’m done, I change clothes, come home and shower.”
The character and resolve that brought him to the Cleveland Clinic have sustained this doctor during the physical and emotional turmoil of combating a pandemic.
“I had a patient who was 45 years old and apparently healthy,” Woodard said. “He wanted to see me about a cough that has bothered him for two years. I did a virtual exam. Next thing I know, he ends up in ICU with COVID-19 symptoms and experiences kidney failure. Fortunately we were successful in treating him, but he will have chronic lung and kidney issues for the rest of his life.
“Most younger people don’t worry as much about coronavirus, but this story shows you it can infect younger folks as well.”
It’s a cautionary tale that sadly has been playing out more and more in news reports surfacing every day.
“I had another patient who was 34 years old and diagnosed with SNUC (Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma) or a skull base cancer,” Woodard said. “There’s normally a five-year survival rate with a 35 percent chance of recovering and no signs of the disease.
“I had to break the bad news to his mom and grandmother. It’s very tough, especially when someone is so young. What made it worse was he looked a little like and reminded me of one of my good friends. You have to be as forthcoming as possible while still being empathetic and offering support.
“It’s so hard, but you can’t bring it home. I’ve been doing this for 11 years and at first, I’d bring it all home. That’s just being human. It really brought me down and interfered with my relationships.”
Woodard searched for a way out of some of the dark places he was encountering.
“One time, I called up my friend who’s a doctor,” Woodard began. “My friend told me: ‘Troy, you are the only one I know who does what you do. Try to remember that you are giving these people their last shot of any hope.’ That opened my eyes. I pray all the time before surgeries and I pray over my patients.
“This story about the 34-year-old patient with SNUC has a happy ending as the treatment was successful and we have become really good friends.”
If overcoming insurmountable odds has taken Woodard somewhere over the rainbow, then heartfelt gratitude is his pot of gold. No one is more familiar with facing down a struggle thanks to the benevolence of others.
“That’s why I decided to start my named scholarship,” Woodard said. “It was a no-brainer. I know what it’s like to have nothing and receive help from others. That’s why I give back to DePaul. I became one of the first athletes to major in the health sciences and go to medical school.
“I take care of my mom now because she sacrificed everything for me. That’s another no-brainer.
“Another person who helped me get where I am today is Barbara Murrell who is a dean at Tennessee State. The summer before I went to college, she helped me get some grant money to attend a science program at Vanderbilt that exposes students to the medical profession.
“To help me raise money for my books, she had me do yardwork for these doctors. One time, I was running way behind in my yardwork. She shows up in her high heels and business suit, rolled up her sleeves and helped me put the mulch down.”
Keep on rolling up those sleeves and washing those hands Dr. Woodard as you help tamp down the scariest threat of our lifetime.
