Dr. Dylan Kluck Talks About Providing Life-Changing Care at Shriners Children's Lexington

Dylan G. Kluck, M.D., is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Shriners Children’s Lexington, and an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine. He joined the team in October 2022 and sat down for a Q&A to talk about why he went into medicine, how he came to Kentucky, what makes working at Shriners Children's so rewarding and much more.

Talk a little bit about your education, medical training and work history.

I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. I completed my undergraduate education at UC Berkeley in California, and then did my medical training in St. Louis at Washington University Medical Center, where I met my wife. We were medical students together, and then matched together at UC San Diego for residency. After orthopedic surgery residency, I did my pediatric orthopedic fellowship at Scottish Rite for Children in Dallas. I started at Shriners Children's and UK this past fall, with my wife starting in the OB/GYN department at UK at the same time.

Tell us how you became interested in pediatric orthopedics.

My love for pediatric orthopedics actually began during my first rotation of third-year medical school, working with Dr. J. Eric Gordon at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Gordon is a big name in the pediatric orthopedic field, but also a truly caring and nice person. I can remember scrubbing with him on several surgeries at the St. Louis Shriners [Children's] location, and was therefore introduced to the Shriners system early in my medical training. Seeing the positive difference he was able to make with his surgeries, and his incredible rapport and calm confidence with his patients and families, was inspiring. As such, my initial interest in orthopedics was specifically because of my interest in pediatric orthopedics. My interest in pediatric orthopedics was then furthered during my residency training in San Diego, where I was fortunate to work at Rady Children’s Hospital with a number of renowned pediatric orthopedic surgeons.

I enjoy working with kids because there is an incredible opportunity to impact them in a positive manner for the rest of their life. By addressing a significant lower extremity deformity or some of these bigger problems that we treat, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon can have a huge impact on a child’s quality of life. Even with something more straightforward like a fracture, kids are motivated and want to get back to doing the things that they love to do, and being able to participate in that process is rewarding. In addition, I really enjoy the interaction with families, as pediatric orthopedics is a team effort.