Mountain Hawk Heroes: TFXC Alum Nii-Daako Darko

Every Wednesday, Lehigh Athletics, Lehigh Valley Health Network and Coordinated Health is proud to recognize a Mountain Hawk Hero - someone associated with Lehigh Athletics who is making a difference in the medical field. We continue today with track and field/cross country alum Nii-Daako Darko '00.

Previous Mountain Hawk Heroes
July 8: Ali Linsk Butash (Softball Alum)
July 1: Kimberly Scotto-Wetzel & Jonathan Wetzel (Track and Field/Cross Country Alums)
June 24: Robert Bonow (Men's Basketball Alum)
June 17: Morgan Decker (Softball Alum)
June 10: Jim Guzzo (Former Quarterback)
June 3: Amina Affini (Women's Basketball Alum)
May 27: Natalie Krane (Women's Soccer Alum)
May 20: Tricia Klein (Women's Golf Assistant Coach)

By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications

Former Lehigh student-athlete and well-known trauma surgeon Nii-Daako Darko '00 is making his parents proud.

"At an early age, my parents stressed to me that I'm standing on someone else's shoulders," said the former cross country and track and field standout. "My parents came from a different country (Ghana) and I wouldn't have the opportunities I've had without them sacrificing, coming here, working their way up from the bottom and getting to a point where they could give this opportunity to their kids.

"I feel like I've carried that on through elementary school, high school and obviously through Lehigh."

Boy has he ever.

Today, Darko is an independent contractor trauma surgeon based out of New Jersey. The majority of his work comes in critical care surgery.

"I take care of patients who have been acutely injured," said Darko. "We're talking about things like car accidents, stab wounds and hunting accidents. Anything where the patient is acutely injured and sustains some type of trauma to his/her body."

Darko also takes care of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and handles general surgery on an emergency basis – procedures like appendectomies, gall bladder removals and small bowel obstructions that need to be taken care of acutely or emergently in a hospital.

The position as an independent contractor is relatively unique, but not totally uncommon.
Nii Daako-Darko

"It's getting to the point where more and more people are doing it," said Darko. "I'm not employed by the hospital. I basically sell my services to a hospital and then contract with the hospital for a certain period of time. Usually, I focus on hospitals who have an underserved area or have places where they're lacking in certain medical specialties such as surgery. These are mainly in rural and suburban areas."

Early Interest In Medicine
Darko grow up in the opposite of a rural location, New York City, and had his eyes set on the medical field from a young age.

"The interest started in elementary school," he said. "I watched a lot of TV doctors and knew this was something I really liked. As high school went along, the idea was solidified even more."

Lehigh's Challenge for Success program, from before Darko's first semester at the university, actually sparked his medical interests even more.

"It allowed students to take some credits during the summer and get acclimated with the school before the actual semester began," he said. "The program was able to expose us to Lehigh alumni from certain fields. There were some engineers, some people in finance, and also a physician. His name was Dr. Jordan Garrison. He's a trauma surgeon and was practicing at a university hospital in Newark, New Jersey."

Dr. Garrison (also a Lehigh alum in the class of 1978) allowed Darko to shadow him, an invaluable opportunity for anyone, never mind an incoming freshman.

"I remember my parents dropping me off in front of the hospital, him shaking their hands and saying he'd take good care of me," said Darko. "Within five minutes, his pager went off and a trauma came through. It was someone who was shot multiple times. I remember being pushed in a corner and watching all these people involved in the care of this patient doing everything they could. It looked like chaos, but it wasn't."

In the end, the patient made it through, and Darko distinctly remembers a moment which has stuck with him to this day.

It's a big reason why he would get into trauma surgery himself.

"I can still see Dr. Garrison giving a hug to the patient's family," said Darko. "I knew that's what I wanted to do. Since then, I never looked back."

Lehigh's Impact
Lehigh continued to play an important role in Darko's journey, allowing him to continue pursing his goals with confidence.

"The curriculum in my major (biology) was pretty difficult, but in the process, I was getting really amazing training and learning opportunities," he said. "I didn't do formal research, but the ability to be exposed and have the opportunity to do research was something I wish I had taken even more advantage of."

Darko must have done something right because he's paved out an impressive career.

Darko's Lehigh Track and Field headshot

Graduating from Lehigh in 2000, he actually did not get into medical school the first time he applied.

"Instead, I was able to do a graduate assistant program where I was a GA in the biology department as well as with the track and field/cross country programs," said Darko. "That helped me focus on getting my applications stronger while at the same time, doing other things I really enjoy."

"Nii's path to success wasn't linear," said Debbie Utesch, whose title was head men's and women's cross country coach and director of running programs during Darko's career. "He took a gap year, but never lost sight of his goals and ended up with more paths to travel than I think he ever imagined as a college senior."

Post-Lehigh Success
Darko's ultimate path took him to medical school at Kansas City University of Medicine in 2002. He earned both his Doctorate of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) from Kansas City, and also MBA from Rockhurst University the same year (2006).

"I didn't find the content in medical school that big of a jump from Lehigh," said Darko. "It was more that the volume was significant. Imagine you're drinking from a cup one minute and then you're drinking from a fire hydrant the next. That's how drastic the difference is between the learning in college vs. the learning in medical school."

After med school, Darko went into my general surgery residency at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta from 2006 through 2011.

"At that point, I was a doctor, but training in a specialty," he said.

Darko completed a fellowship in trauma/critical care at the University of Miami. Serving as an independent contractor post-graduation, he has worked at a number of places since, including in Altoona, Pennsylvania for almost a decade.

"Altoona happens to be my hometown," said Utesch. "I was able to keep in touch with Nii during visits home and he in turn was able to keep an eye on my parents if they ended up in the local hospital for periodic episodes."

Utesch has a very distinct memory of watching Nii in action as a doctor.

"One of my high school teammates had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was beginning her consultation for chemo," she said. "I was in town to visit her and Nii made a visit to sit with my friend, a woman he had never met. I watched him sit beside her, hold her hand, and address her with extraordinary compassion. Nii used a coach's motivation to encourage her to push through her treatments.

"I was so impressed and proud to see Nii in this vital role."

Anything But A Timetable
When thinking about any path in medicine, there is typically a timetable – needing a certain number of years for each step along the way.

Now, Darko's role as a trauma surgeon brings anything but a timetable.

"People get injured on their morning commutes," he said. "People also get injured Sunday mornings or Sunday afternoons. You're always available to provide care to these people 24/7. But how I, and most trauma surgeons, work is as a team. I may work for 12 hours and then my partner or partners will take over the rest of the shift.

"Shift work is quite common."

Something that's quite the opposite of common, and predictable, has been the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The pandemic has absolutely affected the way how we practice," said Darko. "We've always taken precautions with all our patients who come into the ER."
Nii Daako-Darko

Now, Darko and his staff must assume patients have COVID-19.

"We're wearing our N95 masks," he said. "When we go to any other diagnostic studies, we try to reduce the amount of people who are there (to reduce the amount of exposure)."

For all the precautions taken, it doesn't eliminate the chance of contraction of any virus. It just reduces it.

Unfortunately, Nii and his wife Renee contracted COVID-19.

"We survived and made it through," he said. "It was very scary for a while and challenging to figure out who was going to isolate and how. But we survived. A lot of people have it run through the family and aren't as lucky.

"We know we're really blessed and we know our story is unlike many others, so we take solace in that."

Docs Outside The Box
Another part of Darko's story is his well-known podcast, Docs Outside the Box (click here to listen).

Lehigh actually played a role in the formation of his podcast, which he has grown extremely passionate about.

"After my fellowship in Miami, I was traveling as an independent contractor between Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and having a great time, but I was meeting people who were doing some really cool things," said Darko. "I met this one person who would work for several weeks in the United States, then work in a war-torn area of the world and provide medical care there for several months.

"He literally was living on the bare minimum, using whatever he could get from his weeks working in the United States."

Darko was awed by the selfless humanitarian work. Over days, weeks and months, he heard about so many more stories about medical professionals doing interesting things outside of their "typical" job.

"None of these stories were what I heard in medical school or during training," said Darko. "And by the time I had graduated and gotten married, my wife and I had 650 thousand dollars of student loan debt, the majority of it from med school. We were listening to podcasts on how to pay off debt and how to make a budget."

At that point, the idea for Darko's unique podcast was formed.

"The first several episodes featured people who I'm close friends with, people who I knew in medical school and people who I knew in residency," he said. "I wanted to know what made each one of them so successful.

"The podcast is not really related to what we learned in medicine, but I put it out there and people wanted more of it."

The podcast was created four years ago and today, it's found a niche beyond simply a medical podcast. It's been ranked as a Top 100 in Career Apple Podcast.

Darko hopes the podcast inspires doctors to think outside the box.

Docs Outside the Box

A Nobility With Medicine
Even though Darko is "pushing past the limits of the status quo" (as explained in his website bio), the core of his passion in medicine comes down to a simple concept.

"There's still a nobility with medicine," he said. "The relationship I have with my patients is special. There are things they will tell me that they won't even tell their partners, spouses or children.

"I believe we all want to leave a legacy and to take care of people," Darko continued. "There are many ways we can do that. I've realized my calling and my passion is to help people in this fashion, in a physician/medicine type of relationship."

Nearly two decades after graduating, Darko's relationship with Lehigh remains strong. The former 400 and 800-meter runner (individual and relays) maintains strong connections with so many people.

"Three of my former teammates were part of my wedding party when I got married in 2013," he said. "Coach Matt, Coach Deb and I communicate often."
Old Track Team Photo

Coach Deb described Nii as "consistent in stepping up for his relay teammates."

"I fully trusted Nii when the baton was in his hand and I knew he would come through for his relay under pressure," she said. "These characteristics are certainly mirrored in his career choice as a trauma surgeon. Just as he did on the track, Nii can interact with and lead a team to perform under pressure."

Darko's performance, and compassion, under pressure – no matter the setting – makes his parents very proud.

"Nobody wakes up think they will get in a car accident, will have a traumatic brain injury or will need their spleen removed," said Darko. "To know I can be there for someone during that time – to comfort them, comfort their family and take them through this process and to recovery – is something I take a lot of pride in.

"It's what keeps me getting up in the morning."

Lehigh University Athletics

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Completed Event: Men's Track and Field at Coach Pollard Invite on April 18, 2025 ,

Mountain Hawk Heroes: TFXC Alum Nii-Daako Darko

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