John, Ankle Replacement, Coatesville, PA

When John first walked into the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, the remarkable thing is that he walked at all. Scans showed that his talus, or ankle bone, broken and treated years before, was effectively gone.

John had suspected for years that his badly broken ankle would require surgery eventually. But when he met with a Rothman doctor for the first time, he was surprised on three fronts. First he learned that he had no remaining ankle bone to speak of. Second he was informed that ankle replacement, once thought impossible, had recently become a surgical reality. Finally, John learned that his Rothman orthopaedist was one of a handful of specialists in the world qualified to perform this groundbreaking procedure.

John’s condition was particularly acute, and his operation would be complex. Concerned, he asked his surgeon, “What if you begin the surgery and find you can’t replace it?” His doctor replied, “If I can’t replace it, I won’t begin the surgery.”

In the fourteen years since, John has been a frequent visitor to the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, having had both a total knee and total hip replacement on his opposite leg. These days, when he isn’t walking a golf course or skiing a black diamond, John is simply living life. He is pain-free, enjoys a full range of motion, and as for his prosthetic ankle? “I don’t even think about it.”