Paul Teitelbaum

Dr. Dean Lorich was a great surgeon who will be sorely missed. If not for Dean Lorich, I might be in a wheelchair right now, or worse.

On Memorial Day Weekend, May 2006, I shattered my leg while rollerblading in lower Manhattan. It was a very serious injury that involved 2 hospitalizations over a month long period, 6 or 7 surgeries over a 6 month period, complications including infection and non-union (failure to heal for over 3 months), with revision surgeries, blood transfusion and massive antibiotics. The treatments resulted in over $300,000 in total billings to the insurance company. The infection was nearly life-threatening.

I was initially admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital, near the spot where the incident occurred. St. Vincent's was known for trauma and considered a relatively strong hospital for that type of injury. The trauma surgeon who initially stabilized my leg (external fixation to buy time for a scheduled internal fixation surgery) told me that there was a 15-20% chance I would have a non-union and that I might never walk again. In order to maximize my chances of a strong recovery, I decided to transfer to HSS/Weill Cornell and Dean Lorich performed my internal fixation surgery. Lorich told me I had a very serious injury with chance of non-union but added something to the effect of "...we at HSS have some things we can do that may be able to help your odds."

I was just hoping I'd be able to walk with no pain and lead a relatively normal life, but I knew that within several years I would probably develop arthritis because the injury involved the cartilage in my ankle joint. It turned out that I was able to walk normally with no pain and even run with little pain within just a year of the incident, even though nothing healed by almost 4 months after breaking my leg. It's now 11 years later and I'm happy to say that I'm walking, running and doing sports with relatively little or no pain.

After my leg did not heal for over 3 months, Dr. Lorich tried a couple of novel, cutting edge approaches and therapies on me, including something that I believe was not yet FDA approved at that time as well as a referral to an affiliated bone specialist who prescribed a drug frequently used for a different indication (all with my consent), and they worked incredibly well. Better than I could have dreamed. I can't thank him enough and I'm devastated by our loss.