Today was the final surgical day for Team Hope in Motion at The Obras Sociales Del Hermano Pedro Hospital in Antigua. A total of 15 cases were completed consisting of 7 knee cases, 4 hip cases and 4 foot and ankle cases, bringing the total to 67 cases for the entire mission. The team was functioning as a well-oiled machine, finishing the surgical day very strong.
Today was balanced between hip, knee and foot and ankle. Dr. Lombardi started the day with a 73 year-old patient who was severely bow-legged and used a walker to help a very arduous gate. He had a 1-2 inch defect in his medial tibia and was very thin, but had a large femur and tibia. A constrained implant was used to provide enough stability for his knee to function and implants were used to bolster the medial side of his tibia in order for him to support his knee implant and allow him to walk normally. After 90 minutes, Dr. Lombardi and his surgical team successfully reconstructed his knee and provided him with a well-functioning knee joint. Later in the day, approximately 5 hours later, this patient got out of bed and walked across the floor of the hospital room – please see the video in the images!! Next door in the hip room Dr. Keith started with an 18 year-old man who presented with Crowe stage 3 hip dysplasia in his left hip. This man was of very small stature and challenged the team to find an implant size small enough to fit his skeleton. This was not the first time that Dr. Keith had treated this type of condition, so he expertly reconstructed this hip joint efficiently and effectively and replaced most of his leg length difference on the left side. Dr. Klaassen and Mike Berend applied their years of experience to repairing the other knees for this Thursday. In the foot and ankle room, Drs. Herbst and Knecht worked on a variety of foot and ankle conditions including hammertoe and ankle arthrodesis.
On the hospital floor, the patients took turns walking and climbing stairs while supervised by the physical therapy team. Most of the Team HIM Physical Therapy team are very youthful looking and were receiving advice from some of the elderly patients on subjects like respecting their parents and their elders. Most of the patients had a family member or friend at their bedside who were patiently sitting with them while their bodies recovered from the surgery. Time after time patients described their anticipation and sometimes arduous journey they made to receive their implant or, corrective surgery, and how incredibly thankful they were for the work done by Team HIM to improve their lives so they could go back to a productive life.
At the end of the day, all the instruments and unused implants were packed up by the implant team. Special thanks to Zimmer Biomet for supplying the implants and instruments needed to perform a wide variety of sizes for primary and revision hip and knee procedures performed during the week. Also, a big thanks to Adam Griner, Keegan Fridblom and Todd Dawkins from Zimmer Biomet for organizing the equipment during the week and getting the needed implants to the operating rooms at the right time.
Tomorrow, I will wrap up the final non-surgical activities done by the team in the Antigua area before returning to their family and regular jobs back in the US.
Respectfully submitted
John White
