Dr. Gloria Beim
An Olympian of an Orthopedist Story By Holly Resignolo
They say she always has a smile on her face. Living in the mountains you hear a lot about broken body parts and along with that, you hear even more about the doctors providing patient care, as people are always looking for references. I personally have been fortunate enough to not need a reference but, over the years I kept hearing indirectly about the care some of my friends had received from a remarkable Crested Butte Orthopaedist, Dr. Gloria Beim M.D. The Head Freeride Coach of the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team, William Dujardin, said: “Dr. Beim is super Pro and recognizes how you want to get back in action ASAP.” He and many of his athletes and friends have experienced first hand (or leg or arm) her incredible care and hold her in their highest regard. I thought she might be a good fit for our Women Who Rock the Rockies issue and it wasn’t until I actually sat down and had a conversation with her that I realized how fitting it was that we include her. Here is what I learned from Dr. Gloria Beim of Alpine Orthopaedics in Gunnison and Crested Butte. “I was a shy, scared and introverted kid that loved medicine and wanted to be a veterinarian. I had no friends and I was severely bullied in school. At age 14 I had had enough of it and thought “I am going to follow my dream and get out of here”. I went to the school’s Board of Education to petition them to allow me to start college early and was approved. As soon as I went to college I made friends, came out of my shell, and I wasn’t a scared, bullied kid anymore. I was pretty happy. While I was at college I had a really bad knee injury. My whole focus changed from my vision of being a vet to human medicine. I was 16 and decided I just had to be an Orthopaedist. When I told my own Orthopaedist he told me, well, “women just don’t go into Ortho, they are not physically strong enough” but that wasn’t going to stop me. I joined a gym and became a bodybuilder, and got REALLY strong. I was just not going to let that perception stop me. I got into medical school at UC San Diego, my dream school, and when I was preparing for the residency trail for Orthopaedics, which is one of the most competitive residencies you can get into, I was pretty much the only woman in the interviews. It was all guys and me. During those interviews I heard it again; the same question came up over and over again, “women aren’t strong enough to do this work, how are you going to do this?” I thought I am strong enough 40
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for this and I have worked hard and it is my passion, so I will not be deterred. In the last interview I went to, the guy conducting the interview reiterated the same limiting belief, that a woman could not be strong enough, and I told him “I am so tired of hearing that, I‘ll tell you what, I will arm wrestle you right now. If I lose I will leave right away and if I win you will treat me like every other guy in here”...and beat him. If he was Arnold Schwarzenegger I would have won, my adrenaline...you have heard of moms picking cars up off their kids, I could have lifted a car. I was that pumped and there was no way I could have lost, and I didn’t, I won. He offered me a spot right there. I ended up going to the New York Orthopaedic Hospital at Columbia where it was me and 35 guys. During that time there was one woman who was just finishing up her residency and another woman who was in the program for a couple of years, so I wasn’t completely alone. I just tried to fit in, I went to the gym with the guys and asked them to treat me the same and for the most part, they did. I had some bumps here and there but I never let it get to me, I just held my own, I was always happy. I am always smiling, you can ask anyone. My colleagues and students would always ask me why am I always smiling and always so happy and they still do. One of the secrets of my happiness is because my parents are both Holocaust survivors. They were my inspiration to dream big, they taught me you can do anything, you can survive anything. I mean, if they can survive that, I can survive anything and that was my secret to grasping a dream and never quitting until I got it. I remember in medschool people were dropping like flies and complaining how the program was like torture, and I thought what do they know of torture? We grow up free, in a free country. We can practice our religion, we can go to school and become anything we want, there are no limitations in this life for us versus what my parents went through and I have worked hard in school and here at my practice. I never saw it as torture; I saw it as a privilege and honor that I can get to do this. This is my philosophy in life and it is my driving force. I take advantage of everything that life has to offer. I have two kids, 8 and 14, they are amazing and I love them so much. Some people ask how can you be so busy in your practice and take care of kids? Do you just dump them at daycare? No, I built a clinic with an extra big office where I could bring my babies to work. A week after I had them they were there with me. I got my Bjorn Bag and my babies would be with me for most of my clinics or I would put them down for naps while attending to my patients. I would bring them with me when I had surgeries with a