From Surgery Patient to Water Polo Champion in Four Months

Sixteen-year-old Sophia Uhlhorn-Thornton set a goal of getting back to playing water polo with her high school team after a knee injury. Her Stanford Medicine Children’s Health care team helped her achieve that.

When you ask Sophia Uhlhorn-Thornton what she likes about playing water polo, the first thing she’ll tell you is, “The best part is having the opportunity to be around people, like my teammates, who I love while doing something that I love.”

She is also a fierce competitor and stellar athlete. Her athleticism played a major role in Tam High’s Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) water polo championship, as she scored three of eight goals against rival Redwood High.

“At the beginning of the season, I felt like I wasn’t really able to play to my full potential,” Sophia said. “But by that final championship game, I felt like I had a pretty good game. It felt really good to know that I was able to win with the team, even though I had to go through a surgery.”

A frustrating knee injury

Earlier that year, in March 2024, Sophia was trying a Brazilian dance move that was taught during P.E. class. It involved squatting down and spinning on one leg. Then, she felt her knee buckle.

Imaging at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health confirmed her fears of a serious injury. Her kneecap had dislocated, tearing her medial patellofemoral ligament.

“When it happened, I had a swim meet that day, so I was a little bit disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to participate,” Sophia recalled. “After I found out I would need surgery, I was even more disappointed because I knew it would impact my life—not just competing in swim and water polo, but even just walking around.”

With kneecap dislocations, the severity of the injury depends on what happens to the cartilage of the knee. There are cases where a kneecap dislocates and slips back into the socket without causing much damage to the cartilage. But that wasn’t the case with Sophia.

“When her kneecap popped out, on its way back in, it hit the femur bone and knocked off a piece of cartilage. In cases where the cartilage breaks off in one piece or even a few smaller pieces, we can actually repair it. In her case, we recommended surgery to assess whether the cartilage was repairable, and also because we don’t want loose pieces floating around the knee causing irritation and damage,” said Molly Meadows, MD, pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Stanford Children’s.

Sophia approached this setback as a true competitor does. She set a goal of getting back to playing water polo on day one of the season, and she had the right medical team by her side to do just that.

A team approach and grit lead to championship

Typically, patients with Sophia’s injury take about six months to get back to sports. But because Sophia plays water polo, which is generally a little gentler on the knees than some other sports, Dr. Meadows said she could potentially return in four months, depending on how physical therapy went.

“Those of us who take care of athletes know that sports are more than something they do after school,” she said. “I make sure to take the time to explain to patients that we have the same goals. I think the family was very receptive and did a great job of understanding both our short- and long-term goals.”

To achieve that, the team at Stanford Children’s worked diligently behind the scenes to set up physical therapy sessions as soon as they had a surgery date. That involved calling PT clinics closer to Sophia’s home to make sure she was on the schedule to start as soon as possible.

“It was amazing,” said Emily Uhlhorn, Sophia’s mom. “They scheduled her surgery during spring break, so she could do the surgery and get back in the pool on day one of the high school season, which was exactly four months to the day.”

Dr. Meadows removed multiple small fragments of loose cartilage from Sophia’s knee and reconstructed the ligament that stabilizes the kneecap to avoid future dislocations.

“During the surgery, I also obtained a sample of Sophia’s cartilage, which allows us to actually grow her cartilage in a lab and use it to fill in cartilage defects if she develops pain in the future,” Dr. Meadows said.

At the beginning, physical therapy was tough for Sophia. She was in a brace for six weeks, and she felt like she wasn’t improving.

“It was just hard to get around and live a normal life,” Sophia said. “But I kept getting through it because that would mean I’d be able to play water polo. My siblings are also very athletic, so that was another motivator to rock climb with them again if I did all my physical therapy.”

That motivation and grit paid off. She was back in the pool on day one like she’d planned, and then ended up winning it all.

“It’s a real testament to her,” Emily said. “She had a lot of sad days where she came home and was in pain, but she got through it and persevered. I was so proud to watch her and her team not only get to the championship game, but also win it.”

By swim season, one year after surgery, Sophia was back and mostly pain-free. Her swim team won the MCAL Championship, the first time in multiple years that Tam won both the water polo and swim championships. Sophia was a champion herself, winning the league in the 100 butterfly and participating in the winning 200 medley relay, as well as getting third place in the 50 free and the 200 free relay. She was also named MCAL swimmer of the week twice during the season.

This fall, the Tam water polo team is off to a great start, and Sophia is back to full strength, scoring six goals and going six for seven in the first game of the season against Las Lomas.

The Children’s Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health offers some of the best pediatric orthopedic care in the nation at six locations throughout the Bay Area, often with same- or next-day appointments. Learn more >