Hip Resurfacing Surgery Video: Todd's Story

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Transcript

Todd: That’s us. I was on a house fire. I came up the ladder with a running chainsaw; there was a lot of smoke. And there was a weak area that I stepped into and I came down to my groin. And that caused trauma to my hip.

Dr. Joseph Jankiewicz, Orthopedic Surgeon: His joint space was almost completely obliterated. It's within a few cells, touching bone on bone.

Todd: The pain that I have now in the joint, is like this grinding chronic pain. I don’t want these guys to see me limping, because they rely on me.

Dr. Jankiewicz: He’s used to saving people now he’s in the opposite position.

Todd: I tried to run the other day, when we saw a large column of smoke. Mentally I was saying run and physically I wasn’t able to run like I used to [overtalking] everything. It would be devastating for me to not be able to do what I do.

Dr. Jankiewicz: If we left his hip alone it would be impossible for him to continue to be a fireman. Male: I got a pulse rate of 65 [inaudible] rhythm.

Todd: I had two options, either full hip replacement or hip resurfacing.

Dr. Jankiewicz: [inaudible] total hip, we would take a saw; we would cut the neck here, take the head off, and place a stem into the neck. This is an operation that has a very proven track record. But the downside is that, as the hip wears, the bone is destroyed. In the resurfacing, instead of cutting the neck what we would do is we would shape the end of the head, and this prosthesis fits over the top. That will give you the same pain relief as a total hip replacement. The advantage is that in 20 years, if I have to revise this, I have a very normal looking femur.

Todd: I’m just a regular hardworking guy who thinks about being able to support his family and want my physical health back.

Todd's Wife: His entire lifestyle has changed. When he gets up from sitting down he groans. Or getting out of a car? Ohhhh. I know he’s in a lot of pain but he doesn’t talk about it. He’s the guy that always does like 110%. But that’s the Todd that I used to know.

Colleen: Things happen to people they don’t expect all the time. Their life changes dramatically. We can get them physically stronger; we can get the joints back together. But really our biggest mission is to get that person back into their life. Nurse: Joints are what we do at this hospital. 85% of all the surgeries are either new knees or new hips. So we have the best trained staff. We have the newest equipment. The physical therapy people are wonderful. So you’ll do great here. Even though he’s a big tough guy, strong guy, he’s as human as anyone else.

Todd: How are you?

Dr. Jankiewicz: Good man, how you doing? Ready to go.

Todd: Good to see you [inaudible].

Dr. Jankiewicz: When you operate on somebody, you operate on not only them; you operate on their family, their wife, their children. All right man, see you afterwards. You’re gonna do fine.

Todd: Thank you.

Dr. Jankiewicz: All right I’ll talk to you later….

Todd: Appreciate it.

Todd's Daughter: Did he just sign your hip?

Todd: He did.

Surgical Tech: Time out, the patient comes in for right hip resurfacing with Navigator. The doctor….

Surgeon: Start putting the [inaudible] on.

Surgeon: We map the surface of this patient’s hip in order for the computer to construct a virtual model.

Todd's Wife: Yeah, Daddy is doing okay. It's a hard day for him.

Olympia: Families can track their family member and find out if they’re in pre-op, in surgery, in recovery based on an identification number. It just relieves the anxiety; it's a beautiful thing for families to know.

Dr. Jankiewicz: How’s that look, Mark?

Dr. Mark McBride, Orthopedic Surgeon: Yeah that’s perfect.

Surgeon: These reamers shape the head, from a ball down into a cylinder so that we can put the implant on there.

Surgeon: The head is prepared.

Surgeon: So this is the femoral component, that’s the mirror surface its gonna glide on the socket. So we’re going to fill this part way up with liquid cement.

Surgeon: We’re in. All done.

Todd: Hey, there’s my crew. This is my third trip outside of the house. When I come back full duty, I need to be able to do this. I want to be 100 percent. You don’t want to be that dead weight.

Firefighter: You’re moving good, dude.

Todd: You should have seen me a week ago. I couldn’t even lift my leg on and off the couch. Yeah I’ll be back. I’ll be back.

Firefighter: See you soon.

Jennifer, Physical Therapist: Good. So knee straight? See if that’s enough range for you. It's my job to get him back to his job. It's about motivating them to say okay, we’re not going to just do this exercise, but why?

Todd: That’s the one you have to put over your shoulder, charged.

Jennifer: Especially with the heavier hose, that forward bend is going to be really important. It's great to go to work every day and help someone.

Todd: There’s a tunnel that’s about 100 feet long and you have to crawl forward through with a charged hose line, and then drag 150 pound sled back through. I have to take the same exact test; except for to get hired you have to do it in 10 minutes. And to come back on, you have to do it in 6 minutes. Well I did it in 4 minutes and 15 seconds. I’m back, I’m definitely back. I realize how much chronic pain I had, and how debilitating that was. What I thought was maybe never being 100% again, to coming back to work and doing my job, better than I was doing it before. That’s our tone. This is everything to me. 19 years between two fire departments and another 15 years to go.

Firefighter: 6th Avenue between Hawthorne and Ivy.

Todd: I love my job.