Ben Petrie was born and grew up in Stillwater, Minnesota. Stillwater is a medium-sized suburb of Minneapolis, on the eastern border of Minnesota and Wisconsin. He has one older brother, Ian Petrie. He went to college at the University Minnesota-Twin Cities, majoring in microbiology and physiology. He went to medical school at Boston University School of Medicine.
While a proud rehabilitation physician now, Ben’s journey to his specialty was unconventional. As a 3rd year medical student, it was discovered that he had a large cavernoma (a benign tumor) gradually compressing his cervical spinal cord, causing hand weakness/numbness. He took a break from medical school for a year to get this removed at Mayo Clinic.
Fortunately, the surgery to remove this tumor went very well, and his strength was well preserved after complete removal of the tumor. Though initially he had difficulty coordinating movements in his left arm, this gradually got better with intensive therapies. He still has numbness and coordination problems throughout his body, particularly his hands. So, while you probably wouldn’t want him performing brain surgery on you, most people wouldn’t even guess that he had a nontraumatic spinal cord injury at all these days.
It was through this deeply personal experience Ben discovered Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. His enjoyment and ultimately love for the field grew the more he learned about it, appreciating the ability to personally connect with his patients in a small way. He matched into residency at Northwestern University (Shirley Ryan Abilitylab). Before he left Boston, he met his future wife, Naila Tariq. They bonded over their dislike of Bloody Marys, a bond that continued to grow even after Covid mandates forced every date into a take-out and movie night.
At Shirley Ryan, he grew as a physician and person as the world was shaken by the Covid epidemic. The challenges he and his co-resident’s faced strengthen their skills and deepened their connections with one another. In residency, Ben led a pilot study with Dr. James Cotton on the use of gamified EMG biofeedback in people with incomplete tetraplegia from a spinal cord injury.
He stayed on after residency as the Spinal Cord Injury Fellow at Shirley Ryan. That year his long-term partner Naila moved in with him, after four years of a long-distance Boston-Chicago relationship. Between fellowship and attendinghood, Naila and Ben adopted a two-month-old pug named Elote (Mexican street corn – yes, he looks like a little corn). Their family complete for now, they said goodbye to Chicago and hello to Cleveland.
At MetroHealth he has thrived on using his long-developed knowledge of medicine and spinal cord injury to improve the lives of the people he treats. In his free time, he is an avid videogamer, at least weekly playing Internet games with his brother Ian and friend Billy. His Covid hobby was mixology, and he has found new interest in cooking since moving to Cleveland. Naila found a fulfilling job as a psychiatric nurse practitioner in Ohio, and puppy Elote is busy destroying everything Naila and Ben own in their apartment together. Ben is excited to be here and looking forward to getting to know everyone at MetroHealth better!
