It is a great privilege to be able to help those in need regain their mobility. The pleasure I receive from seeing people walking around pain free after their joint replacement, is a feeling that money can’t buy. It’s this satisfaction which drives medical professionals to provide the highest standard of quality healthcare service.
The successful outcome following long, gruelling, and technically challenging surgical procedures, is even more rewarding than the procedure was difficult. This happened very recently with a young man who is 48 years of age. He was involved in a motor cycle collision in October 2016, and sustained multiple fractures, including that of his left hip, which was treated emergently by a reputable colleague of mine, with a device known as a cephalomedullary nail. I am certainly not suggesting that this was an incorrect decision, as I too, would have suggested the same procedure at the index surgery. Unfortunately, the fracture never healed, resulting in a non-union, where fracture pieces are joined by soft fibrous tissue instead of bone. This means that there is now motion between the fragments, resulting in pain, deformity, and disability. This patient consulted me recently in 2017, with a short left leg and painful left hip, and, with considerable impairment in activities of his daily living. Due to the failure of the pervious procedure at fracture healing, I found no other reasonable alternative, besides a total left hip replacement. Although hip replacement surgery is usually not advised at the age of 43, his symptoms and functional impairment left little alternative.
To my delight, after a 5 hour procedure to remove the failed implant, and replacement of the left hip with a special uncemented long stem revision implant, necessitated by the resulting deformity of the thigh bone from the index procedure, he woke up pain free for the first time in ten months. Shaking my hand vigorously, he thanked me for the care and efforts which resulted in a successful procedure. He has made steady progress with his rehab since 24 July, and continues to make me smile inside, and out, when I see how appreciative, happy, and comfortable he is.