Peter L. Bayers

In February 2011, I shattered my right lower tibia and snapped by fibula when an ice dagger collapsed with me on it as I was ice-climbing. A good friend, an Orthopedic surgeon by the name of John Mullen, put me in touch with Dr. S. Robert Rozbruch at HSS because of the severity of my injury. The injury was so serious that one of Dr. Rozbruch's Fellows told me later that he did not think my leg would heal.

Well, using an Ilizarov fixator, Dr. Rozbruch worked a miracle and I healed beautifully. Not only that, but also out of curiosity, Dr. Rozbruch took an x-ray of an old serious injury to my left tibia, and right before I went in for my operation on my right leg, he told me I needed to fix my left leg too or I would be sorry when I was older. In June 2011 Dr. Rozbruch did reconstructive surgery on my left leg to straighten out my leg from an old injury. I had fixators on BOTH legs for several months.

The outcome? Dr. Rozbruch gave me my life back. I have returned to serious rock, ice, and Alpine climbing, I play soccer, and I am even running twenty miles a week--WITH NO ILL EFFECTS. Dr. Rozbruch is DA MAN!!! He made me confident at every stage, reassuring me that he could fix me, and treated me with his utmost attention, as if I was THE most important patient he had. I would like to add that my entire experience interacting with various employees at HSS at all stages of my ordeal was nothing but positive. HSS is a special place because of its special people, from staff, to custodians, to nurses, to P.A.'s, to Doctors. Kind, gracious, compassionate, and professional in all their expertise. Thank you Dr. Rozbruch and thank you HSS.

January 30, 2024:

In winter of 2010 I smashed my right leg ice climbing, a catastrophic Pilon fracture. A close childhood friend of mine, orthopedic Dr. John Mullen, sent me to HSS in NYC to see this superstar, Dr. S. Robert Rozbruch. Not only did Dr. Rozbruch save my right leg, he fixed a tibia-fibula malunion in my left leg.

I recovered and was back climbing in ice and rock in 2011! And I have had the privilege of climbing rock and ice in the mountains - throughout the U.S; in Canada; in Europe - for the past 13 years with no problem whatsoever.

I cannot say enough about how much Dr. Rozbruch means to me. He gave me my life back, which has reverberated to endless adventures in the mountains with close friends and my beautiful family. Can’t thank him enough.