{"id":133123,"date":"2024-07-25T22:06:53","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T02:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=133123"},"modified":"2024-07-25T22:06:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T02:06:53","slug":"temple-st-lukes-medical-student-competed-in-the-2016-and-2020-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=133123","title":{"rendered":"Temple\/St. Luke\u2019s Medical Student Competed in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Photos provided courtesy of St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

When he\u2019s not \u201crounding\u201d on hospitalized patients at St. Luke\u2019s Bethlehem campus next week, as he trains to become a physician, Temple\/St. Luke\u2019s medical student, David Jessen, will be near a TV intensely watching the gymnastics competition in the Olympics in Paris, which start on July 26.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be remembering his own performances in the Olympics Games\u2019 gymnastics events back in 2016 and 2020, as he cheers on his friends with whom he trained in college at Stanford University before he chose a career in medicine over gymnastics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Temple\/St. Luke\u2019s is the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school. By cultivating the region\u2019s brightest home-grown medical talent, such as Jessen, St. Luke\u2019s is helping the region to secure its health and well-being amid a worsening doctor shortage nationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the USA gymnasts make it to the winners podium this year,\u201d says the 27-year-old Bethlehem resident. \u201cThey have a strong team and should compete well against China and Japan, who are also very good.\u201d The USA hasn\u2019t medaled in men\u2019s gymnastics at the Olympics since 2008, he notes.<\/p>\n

A third-year medical student, Jessen competed at both the Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo Olympics as a member of the Czech team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t win any medals,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it was a good, fun experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

He holds dual US and Czech citizenships, as he was born in the Czech Republic to a Czech mother. Both his parents \u2013 his father is American \u2013 coached Jessen and his sister and continue preparing standout gymnasts for national and international competition, including the Olympics.<\/p>\n

In addition to his appearances at the Olympics, Jessen was on the U.S. Junior National Team for five years, and when he turned 18, he decided to compete for the Czech team. He said that he was fortunate to have this opportunity, as he was able to compete in multiple European and World Championships and World Cups, in addition to the Olympics. Following Tokyo, he competed in one more Czech<\/p>\n

National event and then decided to \u201cretire\u201d from gymnastics to focus on pursuing a career in medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss gymnastics,\u201d said Jessen, adding, \u201cI\u2019d love to keep going with it, but it takes such a toll on your whole body.\u201d<\/p>\n

He chose to attend Temple\/St. Luke\u2019s medical school near his home, exchanging the physically grueling and ultra-competitive demands of the sport for the opportunity to help and heal the ill and injured in his community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always loved math and science, and medicine has always been a major interest like gymnastics.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he\u2019s not busy refining his diagnostic and treatment skills, Jessen occasionally can be found at the Parkettes National Gymnastics Training Center, in Allentown, where he trained and met his wife, Ashley, also a retired gymnast and now a physician assistant in orthopedics. He might practice a few simple moves from his days as a competitor or visit with his former coach Vasili Vinogradov, who is training some of the future gymnasts who hope to someday compete for the US in the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Jessen hopes to specialize in orthopedics, having suffered a rash of injuries to his knee and shoulder while training and competing. Following nearly a decade of post-graduate training, performing a residency and fellowship in orthopedics, he dreams of someday serving as a sports surgeon for the US Olympic or men\u2019s national gymnastics teams.<\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a015 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest-cost providers.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photos provided courtesy of St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network) When he\u2019s not \u201crounding\u201d on hospitalized patients at St. Luke\u2019s Bethlehem campus next week, as he trains to become a physician, … Continue reading Temple\/St. Luke\u2019s Medical Student Competed in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/David-Jessen.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/133124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}