COM Outlook Spring 2019

32 | DR. KIRAN C. PATEL COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT ALUMNI Spotlight compassion,” she explained. “That’s when I knew I wanted to specialize in family practice.” After graduating from the KPCOM in 2000, Scanlon completed both her internship and family practice residency at Wellington Regional Medical Center. She had also met Tim Scanlon, to whom she has been married for 23 years. They have two sons, Patrick, 17, and Ryan, 15. Speaking from Experience In her current role as a private practice physician, Scanlon’s motto is, “If you are not an advocate for your patient, no one will be.” It is a vital life lesson Scanlon learned following the birth of her son, Ryan, while she was in the third year of her residency training. “Two months after Ryan was born, he started experiencing infantile spasms—a rare form of seizures. At the time, we did not know what he was going through, but after multiple testing was done at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, we discovered he’d had an in-utero stroke,” she explained. Scanlon completed her residency and began working at Palm Beach Medical Associates in Lake Worth during her son’s recovery. During the next few years, however, much of her time and energy went into taking Ryan to hippotherapy—the use of equine movement as a therapy tool—as well as neurology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy sessions. “I quickly learned that if I wasn’t proactive when it came to my child’s health, no one else would be, either,” she explained. “I was never someone who spoke up in college or during medical school, but now I had no choice. With my husband’s help, we became Ryan’s advocates and got him the help he needed to be successful in the future.” Fortunately, Ryan’s story has a happy ending. “After a year of being on medication, his seizures resolved, and he began talking and improving physically. He is now in ninth grade, and while he has right-side weakness, he excels in football, baseball, and basketball,” Scanlon said. “He loves school and is a role model to many of his teachers, friends, and family members.” The staff at Scanlon's practice includes Malia Maya, M.A., LMT; Antionette McCoy; Sheana Stroempl; Carol Wardally; Scanlon; Lilliam Rodriguez, M.A.; Trish Sampson, M.A.; and Kim Porter, M.A. Not pictured are Ramona Melicam, M.A.; Sarah Garcia, M.A.; and Jane Shore, office manager. Tim and Mary Scanlon enjoy a trip to Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada.