From Rock Climbing to Road Race: Harvard Student Runs Boston for the Brigham
For Minnesotan Harvard student and avid outdoorswoman Mia DiLorenzo, running started as a recovery tool. After Mia experienced a rock-climbing injury that required emergency surgery, Mia’s thoracic surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Scott J. Swanson, MD, suggested she begin running to regain her strength. “I set small goals, walking half a mile without stopping, then running a mile. Running became a way to track my lung recovery, and a daily break from academic stress,” Mia says.
Over time, she ran longer distances, and with friends. Running became a social activity and helped her build strong friendships and get to know Boston. Exactly one year after she was discharged, she ran her first half marathon. “It felt like a full-circle moment. Running Boston this year feels like another full-circle moment — fundraising for the hospital that saved my life,” she says. “The marathon distance hasn’t always been a goal of mine, and neither was the Boston Marathon specifically. For me, it’s about running Boston for the Brigham.”
Running to Recover
After a bad fall at a Harvard club climbing team practice, Mia found herself feeling sicker and sicker over the next several weeks, until she couldn’t breathe at all. She rushed herself to the nearest emergency department. Her chest was filled with infected fluid, forcing her left lung to collapse — at its worst, to the size of half her fist. She was immediately taken into surgery. During the initial emergency surgery, Mia experienced bronchial spasms that led to critically low oxygen levels.
Mia was then transferred from an intensive care unit (ICU) in Cambridge to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she was then intubated and unconscious on a ventilator in the ICU for 36 hours. The surgery was then successfully completed, and she remained at the Brigham for the next week and a half. She had to relearn how to walk, use the left side of her body, and build her cardiovascular strength from ground zero.
“Recovering from an in injury like that is harder than people expect,” Mia says. “When you have a health crisis, everything else fades. I felt like I lost parts of myself during that time. Recovery involves rediscovering who you are and finding joy in new things. Running became that for me. The experience made me grittier and more resilient.”
In training for her first marathon, Mia has relied on the toughness she gained through the recovery process. Remembering how much she’s already overcome helps contextualize a challenging 15-mile run, reminding her of how much she’s capable of.
And she’s had plenty of practice in resilience to prepare her for the often grueling 20 weeks of marathon training. Later in her college career, Mia found herself back at the Brigham after another climbing accident, a 20-foot fall that fractured her femur and tibial plateau. With the comprehensive orthopedic care she received, she was back on the rock wall in no time.
Running with the Stepping Strong Marathon Team is my way of thanking the clinicians and nurses who have done so much for me.
The Gift of Gratitude
Mia wasn’t a runner before her lung injury. While she was a hiker, climber, and adventurer, road races had never piqued her interest. But, with a running challenge set out before her by her care team, she began to find joy in time spent pounding the pavement. “One mile turned into two miles, which eventually turned into 10,” Mia says. “After running my first half marathon exactly one year after my hospital discharge, I started to think about running the Boston Marathon for the Brigham. I can confidently say that I wouldn’t be alive without my dedicated team of doctors, surgeons, ICU nurses, EMTs, and Harvard Medical School residents, and can’t think of a better way to express my gratitude.”
“The nursing staff made the biggest difference,” she says. “Small acts like bringing me cinnamon for my oatmeal when I had no appetite and braiding my hair when I couldn’t wash it made me feel like a person, not just a patient. They treated me, the whole person, not just my diagnosis.”
For Mia, what stands out the most about her experiences at the Brigham are the teams of caregivers. “They taught me how to walk again, how to breathe again, and held my hand during every procedure,” she says. “Because of their constant support, I was able to finish the rest of my first semester of college without taking a medical leave — candidly, I’m still not sure how.”
“I didn’t foresee injury punctuating my college experience in this way, but it has,” she says. “And I think the only reason it’s been so manageable is because of the incredible care I’ve received here at the Brigham, because of how amazing the people are. Running with the Stepping Strong Marathon Team is my way of thanking the clinicians and nurses who have done so much for me.”