LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – A Kentucky Veteran is grateful to a UofL doctor who helped him walk again.
William Quinn of Lexington is a proud veteran.
“I’m Army, Army National Guard,” Quinn said.
Quinn has led an active life, so, when it got hard to move, life got really hard.
“Talk about depression, depression is real,” Quinn said. “I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t mow the lawn. I couldn’t go upstairs.”
Quinn went to the doctor. He said an orthopedic surgeon at a Kentucky hospital told him he needed hip surgery. But, unfortunately, he said the procedure the doctor performed late last year only complicated his issues and left him in further pain. Quinn couldn’t walk, was wheelchair bound, and couldn’t work anymore.
“I have a psychiatrist that I see and he asked me ‘are you suicidal?’ and I said absolutely not but, I could see how people could do it,” Quinn said. “That’s how much pain there was.”
It was eight months of agony. Quinn saw several different doctors to see if they could help them.
“We went to two other orthopedic surgeons, (and) they said the same thing. It’s irreversible, it’s terminal, and you are going to be in a wheelchair the rest of your life,” Quinn said.
The veteran who once served feared the rest of his life would be served to him without independence. Then, Quinn was referred to Dr. Andrew Swiergosz, an orthopedic surgeon at UofL Health.
“When someone comes in and they have had another operation, you have to start digging,” Dr. Swiergosz said.
“First words out of his mouth, ‘I need to put my detective hat on,’” Quinn said.
“He wanted to get out of a wheelchair. He wanted to get back to walking, doing the things he enjoys doing. The thought is we need to give him a new hip joint,” Dr. Swiergosz said.
Dr. Swiergosz determined Quinn needed hip replacement surgery but this was a little complicated.
“He didn’t have a standard hip joint,” Dr. Swiergosz said. “A bunch of scar tissue in his leg. He had this surgery 10 months prior when we did his hip replacement. His leg had been short. When you don’t have a hip joint so his leg was five, six, seven inches shorter then his other leg and the muscles had tightened up. There was a lot of scar tissue and mobilization to do. We go in and put a socket in like we would do for a hip replacement and then we put a stem in with a ball and bring his leg back down and put the ball and socket joint back together.”
Quinn shared a picture of what his hip looked like before the surgery and this is what it looks like now.
“I’m still getting goosebumps right now,” Quinn said.
Three days after the hip replacement surgery, Quinn was standing and walking.
“He gave me a gift that I could never repay and that’s the gift of mobility,” Quinn said.
Quinn is now paying it forward and getting back to what he loves which is to serve. Soon after walking, he joined the American Legion and is a part of the honor guard.
“I’m able to stand and salute these soldiers that give us the safety that we have right now,” Quinn said.
Quinn is working now as an Uber driver. He hopes to be walking without assistance by the end of the year.
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