Noah Dunks on Osteochondritis Dissecans of the Knee

Noah Dunks on Osteochondritis Dissecans of the Knee

Cover story previously published in Rite Up, 2025 – Issue 3.

by Kristi Shewmaker

It happened after school. At an innocent game of touch football, Noah was tackled from behind. He never saw it coming. At just 11 years old, Noah’s knee pain began.

A bone bruise in his right knee was the first diagnosis he received. Noah’s physical therapist questioned the diagnosis because he was not progressing, and he lost muscle. His pain eventually waned, but as he grew over the years, the pain increased. One day at baseball practice while going after a ball, he winced in pain.

“We got into the car, and he just bawled and bawled,” says Philip, Noah’s father. “Just the look on his face — I could see his despair, his helplessness to the pain.” At the time, Noah and his family lived in the Houston area. His parents took him to one doctor after another. Finally, a doctor diagnosed him with osteochondritis dissecans (OCD), a joint condition in which bone underneath the cartilage softens due to an interruption in the blood supply.

A rare condition that affects less than one percent of the population, OCD occurs most often in children and adolescents, particularly when a child is growing. It affects boys more commonly than girls, and it can occur in joints such as the ankle and elbow but is most often found in the knee. The cause of OCD is unknown, but it can be associated with injuries, as well as longterm repetitive impact to the joint. Many physicians never see a child with OCD, and some treat only a few cases per year.

After receiving this diagnosis at age 14, Noah was scared. He had played multiple sports since he was 4. “The older I got, the worse the pain got, and I couldn’t tolerate it anymore,” he says. “I thought, ‘I’m going to be 18 and not be able to play sports.’”

Noah’s family was told his treatment would most likely require many surgeries and would cost a minimum of $100,000. “We thought we were going to have to refinance our house,” says Brooke, Noah’s mother. Researching OCD online, she stayed up late into the middle of many nights reading medical articles and creating a short list of physicians who specialize in treating the condition. Noah’s family seriously considered moving to Germany for the summer so he could get treatment for a third of the price from a specialist there.

Fortunately, they did not have to move overseas because they found an expert in Texas. Brooke discovered Henry B. Ellis, M.D., pediatric orthopedic surgeon and medical director of clinical research at Scottish Rite for Children Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center in Frisco.

She found Dr. Ellis by reading articles that he published through his collaborative research with the international Research in OsteoChondritis of the Knee (ROCK) study group. “I also found some social media parent groups who said, ‘If your doctor’s not a ROCK doctor, find a ROCK doctor,’” Brooke says. “They provide the gold standard of treatment.”

Currently, Dr. Ellis is chair of the ROCK research committee and will be president of the group next year. ROCK has enrolled approximately 2,500 OCD cases in its database, and Scottish Rite for Children is one of the highest contributing institutions. “At Scottish Rite, we take care of well over 100 kids a year with OCD,” Dr. Ellis says, “and that’s not just surgical treatment.” OCD can also be 

treated nonoperatively if it is caught early enough during the progression of the condition.

Two weeks later, Noah and his family drove from Houston to Scottish Rite’s Frisco campus for the first time to meet Dr. Ellis. He recommended that Noah undergo surgery and scheduled it for later that month. “I felt at ease because I straight ahead asked him, ‘How many of these surgeries have you done?’” Philip says. “And he was like, ‘I just operated on a similar young athlete with a similar OCD this morning.’”

Though OCD surgery is a routine procedure for Dr. Ellis, Brooke emphasizes he also customized a treatment plan to meet Noah’s specific needs. “Dr. Ellis’ goals for Noah aligned with Noah’s goals,” she says. “He was going to do everything he could to get Noah back to where he wanted to be, and we had faith in him.”

In the car on the way home, Philip asked Noah what he thought, and Noah said that Dr. Ellis actually seemed to care about his knee. The icing on the cake was when the family learned they were accepted for Crayon Care, Scottish Rite’s charity care and financial assistance program. “All these things we thought were going to be such a burden for our family — Scottish Rite took care of it all,” Brooke says.

A few weeks later, Noah underwent surgery. “When we first looked at Noah’s knee, we were concerned that it would not heal without surgery because the lesion looked unstable,” Dr. Ellis says. An OCD lesion is the portion of bone underneath the cartilage that is damaged due to a lack of blood supply. If an OCD lesion is caught early, the body can typically heal the bone itself with three to 12 months of decreased activity and rest. However, an OCD lesion becomes unstable when the body starts rejecting the damaged bone. “Noah’s body was turning the bone into fibrous tissue, which is very much like dead bone,” Dr. Ellis says. “We recognized that his body would likely continue to deteriorate and not heal.”

In surgery, Dr. Ellis removed the cartilage in Noah’s knee to clean out the unhealthy bone underneath it. Then, he replaced the dead bone with healthy bone that he took from Noah’s pelvis. Using a suture bridge technique, Dr. Ellis put the cartilage back on the bone. For four months, Noah recovered and healed before Dr. Ellis went back in to remove the sutures.

Noah came out of his second surgery in a long leg brace locked in extension. He began physical therapy near his home in the Houston area and would gradually return to activities over many months. After one year, Dr. Ellis released Noah, allowing him to return to full activities without restrictions. At his two-year post-op appointment, Noah’s X-rays demonstrated there was no OCD in his knee.

“Noah progressed as we expected,” Dr. Ellis says. “Some kids receive a diagnosis, and they’re crushed. Noah is a resilient fighter type, both mentally and physically, where he was like, ‘Let’s get this fixed so I can move on.’”

Today, Noah plays football, baseball and basketball, but he is leaning toward a future in basketball, hoping to get a college scholarship and maybe even go pro. As a junior on his high school varsity basketball team, he moves between power forward and center. He also has a pretty mean shooting game. Noah told his clinical team that when his treatment was over, he was going to “dunk on it.” In May after his two-year post-op appointment, that is exactly what he did. “When I got up there and punched it through, I was like, ‘I did it!’” Noah says.

Thinking back on Noah’s time at Scottish Rite, Brooke says, “It’s just a blessing to be where we are.” Philip agrees. “I’m not going to lie,” he says. “I was worried sick about a surgeon chopping on Noah’s knee, but Scottish Rite has definitely been a godsend. They have covered us in every aspect, enabled us to take care of our child and not leave us in a spot where we have to sell everything.”

Noah says that his experience at Scottish Rite gave him hope. “Some people have not been as fortunate as me to find a surgeon who can do what needs to be done well,” he says. “Scottish Rite helped me to value the time that I have, that I’m getting a chance to play sports again, and that I need to do it the best that I can.”

How Healing Sparked Jasmine’s Future In Medicine

How Healing Sparked Jasmine’s Future In Medicine

What begins as a chapter of healing can sometimes become the foundation for a lifelong calling. For some patients, like Jasmine, the care they once received becomes the very reason they find their own unique way to give back in the future.

In her hometown of Lubbock, Texas, Jasmine was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) at age 1. JIA causes stiffness and swelling in the joints. In Jasmine’s case, she experienced painful symptoms initially in her wrists, one ankle and one knee. Later on, she developed symptoms in 20 of her joints. Jasmine and her family traveled from Lubbock to Dallas for her monthly appointments with Scottish Rite for Children’s pediatric Rheumatology team — a memory she remembers positively.

“Scottish Rite has always been a welcoming place,” Jasmine says. “I remember the welcoming environment, from the popcorn to the cafeteria and more.”

Having JIA means living with an unpredictable condition, with flare-ups that can worsen symptoms without warning. Throughout these challenges, Jasmine’s care team has been a steady source of support. Her team of rheumatologists collaborated with Jasmine and her family to adjust medications and injections as needed. Together, they helped her navigate the uncertainty of JIA and strive toward a life with less pain.

“Scottish Rite taught me to focus on the positive aspects of life and continue making the best out of any circumstance,” Jasmine says. “The doctors, nurses and staff members gave me such a wonderful experience.”

As a patient, Jasmine found community at Scottish Rite through programs like Camp Joint Adventure and Learn to Golf, which are designed to bring patients together in a positive, “can-do” environment. In gratitude, Jasmine has returned for the past three years to give back to the same programs that once gave her so much.

“The memories and lifelong friends I have gathered through these programs are something I will be forever grateful for,” Jasmine says. “These are friends that I will invite to my future wedding. I also developed valuable connections with my care team who never gave up on me and shared meaningful experiences with current patients through the camps.”

Jasmine’s journey has inspired her to take her passion for giving back even further. She will graduate from Texas Tech University in December and will apply to medical school in the spring. With her goal set on becoming a pediatric rheumatologist or orthopedic surgeon, Jasmine carries the values and principles she learned from her care team at Scottish Rite along the way.

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Frisco Style: When the Game Gets Too Big

Frisco Style: When the Game Gets Too Big

By Monica Wallis

In cities like Frisco, where the population has surged by over 77% in the last decade and sports are stitched into the community’s identity, the growth of youth athletics is impossible to ignore. Across North Texas, and especially here in Sports City USA – home to major professional teams, the PGA headquarters, and some of the nation’s most competitive youth clubs – sports aren’t just something kids do after school. They’re a culture. A lifestyle. An industry.

And an enormous one at that. The youth sports industry in the U.S. now generates over $20 billion annually. In 2023, more than 70 million children participated in youth athletics, a staggering number. But for many experts, the boom comes with a question: At what cost?

Meet Dr. Philip Wilson, Assistant Chief of Staff, Director of the Center for Excellence in Sports Medicine, Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon, and Associate Program Director for the Orthopedic Sports Fellowship at Scottish Rite for Children. A professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Medical Director of the North Campus, he sees patients at the Frisco campus – and is an avid sports fan. He’s a passionate advocate for the value of youth sports, celebrating their physical, social, and character-building benefits while acknowledging the physical and mental risks that can come with them. And according to Dr. Wilson, the question of cost is more than rhetorical.

Read the full article.

Two Fellows Begin Training in Pediatric Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship

Two Fellows Begin Training in Pediatric Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Pediatric Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship program proudly welcomes two fellows, marking the first time the program has hosted multiple fellows since its inception. The 2025 – 2026 fellows are Paige Mandas, Ph.D., from University of Georgia and Ashley Wilkerson, Psy.D., from The Chicago School.

The goal of the psychology fellowship is to receive in-depth training in the practice of pediatric psychology. Young psychologists who choose this program select a niche focus on guiding children through a breadth of pediatric orthopedic conditions. The fellows will work alongside Scottish Rite’s Psychology team to gain experience in inpatient and outpatient pediatric settings at both Dallas and Frisco campuses. Together, the fellows will embark on an educational journey that will equip them with the necessary skills to support children throughout their treatment.

Meet the 2025 – 2026 Psychology Fellows

Paige Mandas:

What inspired you to apply to the Psychology fellowship at Scottish Rite?
I was very interested in the highly specialized care Scottish Rite provides. Additionally, I wanted to be part of an organization that actively celebrates and embraces individual differences.

What made you choose a career in health care?
I really appreciate the opportunity to work alongside an interdisciplinary team that allows us to provide holistic, patient-centered care. Each member of the team offers a unique perspective. Being able to collaborate in this way provides the highest level of care to families.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
I love spending time outside, so I am hopeful that this fall will bring some cooler temperatures and pretty foliage.

What is your hidden talent?
I enjoy puzzles and problem-solving. If there is a challenge or a mystery, I will zone in to figure it out.

What is something you are looking forward to learning about in your fellowship?
I am excited to learn more about the various orthopedic conditions through working with interdisciplinary teams who prioritize the well-being of patients and their families.

Ashley Wilkerson:

What inspired you to apply to the Psychology fellowship at Scottish Rite?
During college, I was a volunteer for Scottish Rite for Children. A few years later in graduate school, I met Dr. West at a conference and enjoyed talking with her. I loved the specialized training opportunities here, and I knew that I would apply when it came time for looking for a fellowship.

What made you choose a career in health care?
From an early age, I knew I wanted to work in a hospital setting. I love that I can combine my passion of children’s mental health within the hospital.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
Outside of work, I love spending time with my husband and my dogs, as well as riding horses.

What is your hidden talent?
I am really good at walking fast and like to race my friends.

What is something you are looking forward to learning about in your fellowship?
I am looking forward to gaining more specialized training in pediatric psychology within the orthopedic setting.

Learn more about the Pediatric Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship and other fellowship programs available at Scottish Rite for Children here.

Scottish Rite for Children Launches Partnership With Dallas Trinity FC

Scottish Rite for Children Launches Partnership With Dallas Trinity FC

Scottish Rite for Children has been named the official pediatric healthcare partner of Dallas Trinity FC. In collaboration with UT Southwestern Medical Center, Scottish Rite is the official front-of-kit sponsor. This multi-year partnership highlights a continuous commitment to supporting young athletes across North Texas.

“This is an exciting moment for us!” says Scottish Rite for Children President and CEO Robert L. Walker. “Women’s professional sports are reaching new heights, and we are honored to stand alongside these incredible athletes. As the official pediatric healthcare partner of Dallas Trinity FC, Scottish Rite celebrates not only their skill and dedication on the field but also the role they play in showing young people what is possible when you chase your dreams.”

Dallas Trinity FC is a professional women’s soccer club based in Dallas and is a member of the Gainbridge Super League, a Division One professional women’s soccer league. The 2025-26 season has begun, with a touch of Scottish Rite at every game.

Read the full statement.