It was the apex of her medical career.
Earning the prestigious title of chief resident of orthopaedic surgery, a field that sees few Black women, Dr. Bonnie Simpson Mason would finally reap the benefits of the grueling 100-plus weekly resident hours she’d put in the last five years.
For one of her first tasks as chief in her last year of residency, Mason performed a total hip replacement. It was an exciting time.
“This was the year where I would get to operate maximally and then be one of the leaders within the department,” Mason explained.
The surgery was a success; however, she left the operating room with a searing pain in her right shoulder. Assuming she overexerted herself during surgery, she ignored the issue.
But then, the shooting pain migrated from her right shoulder to her left hip.
“These types of migrating pains just continued to increase in frequency,” the Atlanta native recalled, “ and finally one of my co-residents, one of my best friends, said, ‘Bonnie, clearly something is going on. You need to be seen.’”
She soon made her way to a rheumatologist, who diagnosed her with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes the body’s immune system to attack its own tissues and joints.
READ: What Are The Best Exercises for Rheumatoid Arthritis?
According to the physician, Mason, who was 30 at the time, was under the right amount of stress – along with being the right age, sex and race – to trigger the condition. To her knowledge, the disease didn’t run in her family.
“At that point, I had already received a very prestigious hand fellowship, which is additional training in hand surgery at Columbia University,” Mason said. “But once I received this diagnosis, and my physician began aggressively treating me, it became clear that actually we couldn’t get it under control and within a couple of months, I had to relinquish my hand fellowship position.”
Dr. Mason is one of about 1.5 million people in the U.S. living with rheumatoid arthritis, according to the Arthritis Foundation. The disease is nearly three times more common in women than men. Women are likely to be diagnosed between the ages 30 and 60.
READ: Arthritis Vs. Rheumatoid
The hand fellowship wasn’t the only thing Mason had to give up. Three years later, she had to retire from surgery.
“There was a lot of loss all at one time,” she said. “It was a challenge. I had to acknowledge at some point that I was going to need to grieve this loss.”
But Mason knew this wasn’t the end of the road for her. Four years earlier, in 2004, she founded Nth Dimensions, a non-profit dedicated to addressing the lack of women and underrepresented minorities in orthopaedic surgery. Through the organization, she hoped to eliminate healthcare disparities by becoming a pipeline for women and minorities in the field.
In retirement, she was able to focus solely on her mentorship through Nth Dimensions. She has coordinated a team of over 40 orthopaedic surgeons to educate over 3,000 medical students.
“Successfully, now, we’ve exposed thousands of young people across the country to he field of orthopaedics,” Mason said. “We have 88 percent of our students matched in orthopaedic surgery this year [and] 70 percent were women – that compares to a 62 percent national match rate.”
Adding to her success, Mason received the Diversity Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in 2015, proving that it’s possible to overcome any obstacle standing in your way.
“I knew I didn’t go through all of this for nothing. That’s not how God works,” Mason added.
To learn more about the work of Nth Dimensions, click here.
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