Back on the Bike Following Hand Surgery at Duke

By Cara Gillotti
Updated January 28, 2025
Mark Schreiner and his wife Jennifer Gaspar Schreiner pose on the Neuse River Greenway Trail with Mark's bike.

Mark Schreiner and his wife Jennifer Gaspar Schreiner pose on the Neuse River Greenway Trail in Raleigh, NC.

Writer Mark Schreiner’s routine was upended after a bicycle accident left him with broken fingers and broken bones in his hand, unable to work for three months. Following surgery and occupational therapy at Duke Health, he’s back at his keyboard—and back on his bike. “Duke looks at you as more than bones and hands,” Schreiner said. “They consider you as a person.”

A Fateful Bike Ride

On April 27, 2024, Raleigh, NC resident Mark Schreiner was riding his e-bike on a section of the Capital Area Greenway when he ran into a small patch of broken pavement. “I crashed and ended up on my back looking up at the sky,” he said. “I flexed my right hand and knew that something was wrong.”

Paramedics transported Schreiner, 53, to a nearby emergency room, where it was revealed that his head, neck, and spine were fine, but an X-ray showed broken fingers on both hands, as well as broken hand bones. He went home that day with both forearms in splints. “I could use my thumb and index finger on both hands, but that was it,” Schreiner said.

Mark bikes along a trail
Schreiner bikes along the Neuse River Greenway Trail.

Confidence in Duke and a Super Friendly Guy

On Monday, he saw his primary care physician, who referred him to Duke Orthopaedics. Schreiner was familiar with Duke Health, as his daughter was born prematurely at Duke University Hospital, and he felt immediately that he was in the right hands. Two days later, Duke imaging specialists discovered a few more breaks in his left hand during his appointment. “They told me that the fractures in the finger bones were particularly close to the joints,” said Schreiner. “That raises the level of surgical difficulty.”

During his pre-surgery visit with Duke orthopaedic surgeon David S. Ruch, MD, Schreiner recalls, “he walks in and says ‘Hi, I’m Dave.’ I go home and learn that he’s the chief of hand surgery at Duke, and the former president of the American Association for Hand Surgery. He’s just this super friendly guy.”

Comprehensive Treatment at Arringdon

Schreiner was scheduled for surgery at Duke Health Center Arringdon with Dr. Ruch that week. “Imagine that you have to glue two things together,” explained Dr. Ruch. “If they’re really big, you can hold them together in a vise. But if the pieces are the size of three or four millimeters, then you don't have a lot of ways to hold them together. It becomes a matter of being essentially a watchmaker where you have to use magnification and hold these objects together with tiny screws and very small wires.”

After surgery, Schreiner went home with several titanium implants in his hands. He returned to Arringdon two days later to begin weekly sessions with Duke occupational therapist Emily Russell, CHT, MS, OTR/L, who had completed a fellowship in hand therapy at Duke. “There were all kinds of elastic bands and squeezable foams and squeezable gels,” said Schreiner.

Back to Work and Play

That summer, during therapy with Russell, “there was always improvement,” said Schreiner. “Then one day, on my right hand, there was this new sensation, and it was my fingertips touching the palm of my hand for the first time in months.” By the end of July, he was finished with therapy. In August, he was back to work. He was cycling again in September.

“The old expression is that hand surgery is 20% surgeon and 80% patient,” explained Dr. Ruch. “The surgery can go really well, but if the patient isn't motivated to perform the rehab, then the outcome is not going to be as good as you hope. We've got an outstanding hand therapy group at Duke, and he and his therapist were diligent about doing exercises. That's what it takes to get the kind of outcome that he got.”

X-Rays of Mark's hands after surgery on the left. A photo of Mark's hands typing on a laptop months later.
Thanks to a successful surgery, Schreiner has been able to return to work.

Duke Is a Leader in Hand Surgery

“Duke is internationally regarded as having one of the finest hand and upper extremity surgery programs in the world,” said Dr. Ruch. “And the Duke lineage is such that we have trained probably more than 50 of the top hand surgeons in the country.”

Schreiner credits his team at Duke and his wife, Jennifer, for their unwavering support. “When something like this happens, you realize your hands are how you interact with the world,” said Schreiner. “I’m just grateful to have access to such wonderful care.”

Learn More About
Hand and Wrist Fractures