Top science students selected to learn how to set broken bones at Orthopaedic Foundation Lab

On Wednesday, April 21, 24 Darien High School students will have the unique opportunity to play sports doctor for a day at a special program at the Greenwich based Orthopaedic Foundation for Active Lifestyles (OFALS) Lab.  The students will spend the day learning how to repair broken arm bones. They are juniors and seniors in the school’s Post 53 program, one of the only student-run EMS programs in the country.

The Sports Doctor for a Day Lab at OFALS (www.ofals.org) provides a unique forum for student education about current surgical techniques for the repair of broken bones. The Lab features actual surgical equipment including drills, plates and screws which the students will use to screw, pin together and insert supportive plates into realistic synthetic broken forearms.  

Provided by Lab sponsors Synthes Corporation and the Pacific Research Corporation, the bones used are known as ‘sawbones’ or models. Doctors use these same synthetic bones to practice the same kinds of surgical skills the Darien students will be learning.