Michael Gardner

My story is a long one. It started on Feb 19, 2015 while working. I am a 32 year old Police Officer and at the time was assigned to the motor unit riding around on a motorcycle conducting traffic enforcement. I was sitting in the middle of a 4 lane road facing south watching traffic coming north toward me in the middle of downtown Fort Worth. I noticed a passing vehicle that had an expired registration tag. As I turned to get behind the vehicle I went through an intersection and was hit by another vehicle coming through the intersection that did not see me. I was thrown over the handlebars of the motor and over the hood of the car. I landed on my left elbow and my left hip. Immediately after the accident I knew something was wrong but did not know how serious it was until I got to the hospital.

I had a shattered my left elbow and had broken my left femur at the neck near my hip. These both required surgery. The surgery for both my elbow and femur went great and over time I got the use of my elbow back and my left leg. The problem was that looking at my left leg it showed to be roughly 1 -1/2" shorter than my right leg. Desperately trying to figure out a way to get this fixed I went back to my surgeon here in Fort Worth who told me that there was nothing they could do for me besides a total hip replacement.

In my line of work a total hip replacement means retirement since with a total hip replacement you are not supposed to run or abduct your hips outward. Riding a motorcycle you have to abduct your hips to climb onto the motorcycle and more than likely in a career as a police officer you’re going to have to chase someone on foot.

So this did not sit well with me and I started to explore the option of limb lengthening. With the help of my dept and an outside agency I was able to get in touch with Dr. S Robert Rozbruch. We spoke on the phone for about 15-20 minutes about my medical history and what I was trying to get accomplished. Dr. Rozbruch informed me that "THERE IS HOPE AND I CAN HELP YOU...." These words never sounded so good to me because all I had been hearing from doctors in my area is that we can do nothing more for you.

As soon as I could make arrangements I flew up to New York and met with Dr. Rozbruch. He knows what he is doing and has been helping people do the impossible for many, many years. He explained the process to me to where I could understand it and to where it made since to me, and again reassured me that it would get me back to where I needed to be, that it would get me BACK IN THE GAME and more importantly back to my normal self.

I met with him in January of 2016 and was scheduled for limb lengthening (internal nail) surgery March 1st 2016. Dr Struan. Coleman, who is a colleague of Dr. Rozbruch, also came to help out since I had a labral tear in my hip, a bone spur and I needed some hip revision on top of it all to help improve range of motion. So for me it couldn’t get any better I have my surgery scheduled with two of the top guys in the field and to say I was excited is an understatement. I am now 1 year out of surgery and have recently had the internal rod taken out of my leg this past week 02/27/17 which was a breeze.

I am back at work doing what I enjoy and it is absolutely because of the two surgeons who took the time to do their job and get me back in the game.

Just imagine what they can do for you.