A different kind of family business: The Hagenah family is the sports clinic family.
When Dr. Joachim Hagenah thinks of the Hellersen Sports Clinic, he thinks of family. Of the sports clinic family, to which he has belonged for over 18 years, but also of his own, his wife and his three sons. Each of them has worked at the Hellersen Sports Clinic - in the operating room, in nursing or as a doctor. Currently, son Pascal Hagenah is an assistant physician in endoprosthetics at the side of the head physician.
In 2004, Dr. Joachim Hagenah came to the special clinic to set up and expand the endoprosthetics department. For the Hellersen Sports Clinic, this meant a further step towards specialization. However, the chief physician was not the first Hagenah at the Hellersen Sports Clinic. Apart from his brother Dr. Jürgen Hagenah, who had already worked as an assistant physician at the clinic in the 1980s and is now the anesthesiological director of the outpatient surgery center, Silke Hagenah, Dr. Joachim Hagenah's wife, also found her way to the Hellersen Sports Clinic before him. A year after graduating as a nurse, she applied to become a surgical nurse in 1987 and worked at the clinic until the birth of her eldest son Dominic in 1990. The excellent reputation of the special clinic was already known nationwide at that time. Silke Hagenah's joy about the position was accordingly great. "It was already a very familiar atmosphere back then," she recalls.
Dr. Joachim Hagenah, on the other hand, did not even think about working in orthopedics at that time. "I always wanted to be a doctor, but orthopedics was not a choice for me. It was only during my training as a surgeon that I realized that this field was also very interesting and added orthopedics to my residency," reports the head physician of endoprosthetics. After his experiences in the big city at St. Franziskus Hospital in Cologne and with three small children, he had the desire to work closer to home around the turn of the millennium. As part of further specialization plans, the hospital was looking for a specialist in artificial joints. "For me, this was the ideal time," reports Dr. Joachim Hagenah.
His passion for medicine was inherited by his three sons. Even though the three initially sought their professional future in business, they all ultimately ended up studying medicine. Stations at the Hellersen Sports Clinic were not to be missed.
"I wanted to become a doctor even as a child. I think that had something to do with how positively my father spoke of his profession. My interest in the natural sciences further solidified my career goal during my school years," says Dominic Hagenah, who now runs a family practice in Lüdenscheid. During his time as a resident, he worked at the Hellersen Sports Clinic, among other places. "I had already decided to become a family doctor and wanted to gain experience in conservative orthopedics. After all, many patients with back pain first visit the family doctor's office. I am very grateful to the Hellersen Sports Clinic and especially to Dr. Nolte for what I was able to learn during this time," he adds. Son Marcel also gladly took the opportunity during his medical studies to gain first impressions at the Hellersen Sports Clinic and supported the team in the operating room as a hook holder during the semester break.
Now it is up to Pascal to continue the tradition. Similar to his brothers, first came the student internship at the specialty clinic and the rest of his school years he toyed with the idea of studying medicine. "Through most of my family, medicine was just always present," he says. Since 2014, he has regularly completed nursing internships, clinical clerkships and part-time jobs as a hook holder at the Hellersen Sports Clinic, and now he works as a resident in his father's department.
"For us, it's normal to work with family. After all, I have often stood in the operating room together with my own brother," says Dr. Joachim Hagenah. But now that his youngest son Pascal is working in his department, it also reminds the chief physician of his own early days as a physician. "It makes me think of my first days in surgery. Of course, I was also worried about doing something wrong back then," says the current chief physician, who could well relate to his son's initial feelings.
"You have a lot more responsibility than before as a student in the practical year. I was a little excited on my first day because I couldn't estimate what to expect in my initial time. But I already knew some of the staff through my internships and clinical traineeships, and that made my start easier," says Pascal Hagenah. The excitement quickly faded. Pascal Hagenah feels at home at the Hellersen Sports Clinic and in end prosthetics. The fact that people sometimes talk shop after hours about how a hip prosthesis is implanted is quite normal for him and his father. "I am very proud of my sons and pleased that they have completed their studies well," says Dr. Joachim Hagenah. So not just one of them is following in his footsteps, but all three.
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Sarah Burghaus
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sarah.burghaus@hellersen.de
Marie Schulz
Public Relations
marie.schulz@hellersen.de
