{"id":150264,"date":"2026-07-08T21:39:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=150264"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:39:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:39:52","slug":"defying-the-odds-surgeon-makes-history-securing-2-silver-medals-in-national-cycling-championship-after-transplant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=150264","title":{"rendered":"Defying the Odds: Surgeon Makes History Securing 2 Silver Medals in National Cycling Championship After Transplant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lehigh Valley, Pa.\u00a0<\/strong>(July 8, 2026) \u2014 A Lehigh Valley surgeon and transplant recipient has made history by securing two silver medals at the National Cycling Championships in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Dr. Neal\u00a0Stansbury, an orthopedic surgeon at Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute, part of Jefferson Health, has accomplished something no heart\u2011transplant recipient has ever\u00a0done.\u00a0He won two silver medals at the 2026 USA Cycling Masters and Junior Road National Championships. He competed in the criterium and road races in the 65-69 age group.<\/p>\n

This comes after Dr. Stansbury finished fifth in the championships last year, an extraordinary result for any athlete, let alone someone riding with a\u00a0donor\u00a0heart.<\/p>\n

What makes this story so compelling is not just the comeback, but the context. In his 40s and 50s, Dr.\u00a0Stansbury\u00a0waited patiently on the transplant list. After a lifesaving transplant in 2018, Dr.\u00a0Stansbury\u00a0was told\u00a0he’d\u00a0never race bikes again, though he was determined to defy those odds. After all, he had nearly gone pro in cycling before choosing orthopedic surgery; he\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0giving up either of those passions.<\/p>\n

Once he had his new heart, Dr.\u00a0Stansbury\u00a0didn’t\u00a0miss a beat, with his patients\u00a0or with\u00a0cycling. He reconditioned and earned medals (including gold!) at the World Transplant Games. Plus,\u00a0he’s\u00a0become a powerful ambassador for organ donation and a living example of what modern transplant medicine makes possible.<\/p>\n

Dr. Stansbury is\u00a0the sports physician for Allentown Central Catholic High School, the medical director at Valley Preferred Cycling Center and a speaker, volunteer and board member at the Gift of Life. He does all this while being devoted to his wife and three daughters, all of whom now work in medicine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About Jefferson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jefferson is reimagining health care and higher education to create unparalleled value throughout Pennsylvania,\u00a0New Jersey\u00a0and Delaware. More than 65,000 people strong, Jefferson is dedicated to providing high-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients; making our communities healthier and stronger; preparing tomorrow’s professional leaders for 21st-century careers; and creating new knowledge through basic\/programmatic, clinical and applied research.\u00a0Thomas Jefferson University<\/strong><\/a>, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Jefferson College of Nursing and the\u00a0Kanbar\u00a0College of Design, Engineering & Commerce, dates back to 1824 and today comprises 10 colleges and three schools offering 200+ undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 8,300 students.\u00a0Jefferson Health<\/strong><\/a>, nationally ranked as one of the top 15 not-for-profit healthcare systems in the country and the largest provider in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley areas, serves patients through millions of encounters each year at 33 hospital campuses and more than 700 outpatient and urgent care locations throughout the region.\u00a0Jefferson Health Plans<\/strong><\/a>, through Health Partners Plans\u00a0Inc.,\u00a0is a not-for-profit managed healthcare organization offering a broad range of health coverage options to more than\u00a0370,000 members\u00a0for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nPriscilla Turbitt<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lehigh Valley, Pa.\u00a0(July 8, 2026) \u2014 A Lehigh Valley surgeon and transplant recipient has made history by securing two silver medals at the National Cycling Championships in Wisconsin. Dr. Neal\u00a0Stansbury, an orthopedic surgeon at Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute, part of Jefferson Health, has accomplished something no heart\u2011transplant recipient has ever\u00a0done.\u00a0He won two silver medals at … Continue reading Defying the Odds: Surgeon Makes History Securing 2 Silver Medals in National Cycling Championship After Transplant<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dr.-Stansbury-National-Cycling-Championship.jpg?fit=672%2C372&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150266,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150264\/revisions\/150266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/150265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}