Rohan Cumberbatch dreams of one day becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Rohan was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Ever since Rohan was a child, he has been immersed in the medical field. His father worked in a hospital and fostered an interest in medicine in Rohan very early on. As a kid, Rohan always loved both sports and the sciences. In high school, those interests merged for him following a knee injury while playing basketball. After hurting his leg, Rohan had to meet with an orthopedic surgeon about the injury; the resulting conversation and diagnosis piqued Rohan’s interest in learning about biomechanics. Rohan began researching how orthopedic surgeons dealt with damaged knees like his and was fascinated with what he learned. As Rohan grew older this interest grew into an obsession and he entered the medical world. Rohan started his medical career at City MD, where he worked for a few years, before applying for a job to work with Dr. Vipul Patel, an orthopedic surgeon, at New York Hand Surgery. Rohan did not think he would be offered a job but was thrilled when Dr. Patel said yes. From this experience, Rohan learned a valuable lesson about taking chances and putting yourself out there, because you never know what might happen.

Rohan loves the randomness of the job, especially with the variety of cases he comes across. Some cases can be incredibly common with exactly one solution that they use every time, others could be injuries like none he's ever dealt with before. Rohan remembers one occasion where a patient came in with a gunshot wound in the hand. The bullet had managed to go all the way through the patient's hand and had left a hole you could see straight through. Rohan was almost certain that the patient would have to be rushed straight into emergency surgery. Much to Rohan’s surprise, however, Dr. Patel decided to have the patient complete a few sessions of occupational therapy (with the hole still in his hand) in order to get better functional movement in his hand before proceeding with the surgery. Rohan was amazed to see the approach pay off and said that after the patient’s healing process was complete he would’ve never been able to tell that the patient had ever been shot.

Rohan has now been working with Dr. Patel for almost 2 years and is now getting ready to take the MCAT (the medical school entrance exam) so he can be a doctor by 2028. In mid-August I broke my middle finger in a bike accident. Since then Rohan has helped Dr. Patel guide my healing process. Rohan was a calming, positive, and joyful figure while I was in distress and helped me to deal with my fears. Rohan has a bright future in front of him as a doctor and is excited to see where he will go in his career.