Tuesday, January 6, 2015

US marathon runner gets his hip fixed in Chennai!


Rick Joseph Rubio, 61, of San Francisco had a difficult childhood. To cope with his low self-esteem, Rick used self-medication and began to get drunk and use drugs routinely at 13. This continued for 18 years until he joined a rehab program. Then he began participating in marathons.

After winning several trophies, in 2003, while training for his first Ironman distance triathlon, Rick experienced pain on his right hip. After further deliberation, he underwent a surgery in 2007 which failed after a few years and he was forced to go to the UK for a hip replacement. Within a few years, Rick started experiencing pain on the left hip as well.

When visits to several doctors did not help, he was admitted to SRM Institute of Medical Sciences in Chennai where he recently underwent a hip reconstruct ion surgery and is recovering.

“When he came to us he was very apprehensive as his previous procedure in the US had failed and he wanted to know if he would ever be able to run again,“ said consultant orthopedic surgeon Dr Vijay C Bose, who performed the surgery.

Age and his ethnicity had made him vulnerable to arthritis and so doctors performed a hip reconstruction surgery on his left side four days ago. To ensure he didn't lose any bone mass in the procedure, instead of sawing off a part of his pelvic bone, the surgical team used an implant to replace the ball at the upper end of the thighbone and replaced the hip socket in the pelvic bone.

“The surgery was very complicated as this was his second procedure and the constant running had made his bones too weak. His age was also a matter of concern,“ said Dr Bose.

Within a few days the patient recovered well and is currently able to move around normally. “It would take two months for him to be able to run and within six months he can participate in marathons again.“

The surgery lasted nearly two hours and cost $66,000.



1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a great surgery. Pretty cheap too.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

    ReplyDelete