Dr. David Koivuranta was hit by a car during a training run in 1992 and faced years of failed treatments until a chiropractor's attentive care helped him recover enough to run three marathons on the same knee. That experience inspired him to become a chiropractor focused on listening to patients and supporting their goals.
Chapters
I've been a competitive runner from a very young age. I fell in love with running in high school. It quickly became my passion, something I enjoyed doing, until 1992 when I was out on a training run. I was actually hit by a car. I was thrown 20 feet, I was knocked unconscious. And I didn't come to until I was in the hospital. No one knew who I was. Thankfully, there were no broken bones, a testament to being in good shape. But my knee wouldn't fully straighten, and that's a problem when you want to be a runner. So I went for physio. So painful. Still wasn't helping. Went for arthroscopic surgery. Surgeon said there's nothing wrong. Back to physio. I'd always been under chiropractic care, but I hadn't gone to see the chiropractor yet because back then I didn't know they did more than backs. And when I'd gone in to see him and I explained to him what had happened, I'll never forget, he looked at me from across the table and he says, "I can help you with this." And I was so glad to hear him say that, and I stopped the physio and I started working with him, and it still wasn't fun, it was still very painful, but the treatment, the healing process was different because we were doing it together and we had that relationship. So I was willing to push through it, and thankfully to this day, thanks to my chiropractor, I'm still able to enjoy running. I've run 3 marathons on that same knee, lots of other races, never had any problems. And the biggest thing I take away from that was the time that he took to listen and the relationship he created with me to do it. It's one of the things I enjoy doing is listening to people, finding out what it is that they want help with, what their goals are with their health, and helping them have a better experience in life. My name is Dr. Dave, and that's one of the many reasons why I became a chiropractor.
