I'm writing this on behalf of our 33-year-old special-needs son, Jake. Jake has a very complex genetic syndrome, Prader-Willi Syndrome. It is multifaceted. Several years ago, he slipped and fell at Disney World in Florida. He broke and dislocated his patella on his right knee.
After approximately 3 months of treatment at our local sports medicine doctors (world-class respected physicians who treat Olympic athletes in Lake Placid NY), we found out via a detailed/specialized CT scan that Jake was born with a congenital condition where his right tibia was actually 67 degrees out of phase toward the right. The only correction that would work to repair his knee would be tibial osteotomy surgery. And since the sports medicine physicians locally normally treat Olympic athletes and not special-needs patients, the suggestion was to go to a children's hospital in Boston and see a sports medicine surgeon there (sports medicine physicians there would accept patients up to 35 years old). So that is what we did. After going for an actual pre-op visit in Boston (a 4 1/2 hour trip by car), the physician turned us down as they stated Jake was too complex a patient for them and told us to go to another hospital in Boston. The physician recommended a surgeon there but unfortunately, he never returned their phone call. So we were out of options. Our son had been completely bedridden for about half a year at this point.
In desperation, I went online and researched "orthopedic surgery". Not surprisingly, HSS popped up. I was impressed as to the outstanding ranking the hospital had, and realized I had nothing to lose so I called HSS. I was routed to the Limb Lengthening department and Dr. S Robert Rozbruch. Dr. Rozbruch held a virtual meeting with us 11 days after I first called HSS and took our case! This was a real answer to prayer! What an amazing experience it was to deal with everyone there. From the parking attendants to the doctors and everyone in between. The level of expertise was stunning. And since we have been dealing with hospitals for 33 years due to Jake's condition, we were very well aware of what "good medical care" looks like. Dr. Rozbruch is not only a great surgeon, but he's also a very caring individual. The surgery went great (not surprisingly) and after 8 months of being bedridden our son was finally able to start healing.
One of the things that stood out to us was that with complex cases, comes VERY slow recovery. However, it is our opinion that our son needed to go to a world-class hospital with world-class surgeons.
Jake is doing great in his recovery, and he's walking again.
Thanks to Dr. Rozbruch and his entire team! We are forever indebted to you.
Walt and Rosanne Pietz
Peru, NY
Osteotomy
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