Guidance moving forward

Dear Dr Levine and other moderators,

I am a 3rd year MD student looking to match in an orthopaedic program. I took a year off in between my 2nd and 3rd year due a death in the family and filled that time with starting a ed-tech company and continuation of teaching MCAT. I have recently returned to the 3rd year curriculum and failed my first rotation of Ob/Gyn as it took me a while to reacclimate to the environment. I have included some of my stats as of yet:

School: Top 40
Step I: 244
Preclinical grades: P/F - remediated an intro to clinical medicine class in the last semester of 2nd year with a P
Clinical: Failed my first rotation Ob/Gyn
Publications/Research: 3 publications as of yet with an additional 4 research projects I have lined up
ECs: lots. TA / tutor / ed-tech startup cofounder / advisor for another med startup/ club chairperson

My questions are the following:
1) Does the failure of my first rotation back in the medical curriculum essentially kill my chances of attaining an orthopaedic residency spot?
2) Should I consider taking another year off in between my 3rd and 4th year to do a year of dedicated research and build up contacts in the field and show them that I can thrive in this field?

Any advice would be immensely appreciated. Thank you for your time

First, sorry for your loss.

I don't think failing 1 course makes too much of a difference. Obviously there are some extenuating circumstances. (Some would even say failing Ob-Gyn only validates your fit for Ortho).

I would go ahead and see what happens.
Good luck.

Rajiv Rajani MD
Assistant Program Director, UTHSCSA Orthopedics