Orthopedics Patient Stories

Editor's note: Linda Rockey is a Mayo Clinic employee who provides administrative support to researchers. Before becoming a Mayo employee, she was a Mayo Clinic ...

Linda Rhodes, coordinator of Management Development, recently interviewed the new nurse manager of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Orthopedic Surgery at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida. She talks about her experience throughout orientation and her transition from Mayo Clinic's Arizona campus.

This submission came via email from Marilyn Bates, a Mayo Clinic patient. Bulbs crack the soil as sleet clears from Pittsburgh streets. Spring is almost here or so I think. Not so in Rochester, Minnesota, where my sister and I journey along I-90 to the Mayo Clinic. Here, plains are snow-swept and box elders border an occasional farm, the landscape stark and icy. Procedures performed at the Clinic are often above and beyond those achieved at other medical establishments. Physicians there are not afraid to undo medical mistakes made by others. I am looking for a solution to my dilemma of coping with a missing left kneecap.

When Jayson Werth was struck on the wrist by a pitch during the first spring training game of 2005 as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he began an odyssey to overcome the injury and return to his promising career in major league baseball. Now Jayson is a member of the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies, and I had the opportunity to interview him yesterday before their home game against the Washington Nationals. Jayson recalled the pain, frustration and anxiety that brought him to Mayo Clinic in August 2006 to see Richard Berger, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon and wrist specialist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7DVzKk7RAI

Albert and Mary Errato came to Mayo Clinic in February 2009 when Mary was facing another major operation. After a series of infections and complications, Mary's foot had been amputated in 2007 at an orthopedic hospital in New York City. She was scheduled for another operation, this time to possibly extend the amputation from mid-calf, below the knee to above the knee, when they decided to come to Mayo Clinic. According to Al, from the day they arrived, they knew things were different here. "All the doctors talked to each other, and more importantly to the patient!  They worked together to come up with a treatment plan for Mary. We started calling this Planet Mayo, because it feels like we're on a different planet here." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0U86sBPcxc

Here's an excerpt of Lindsay Wood's story, which she submitted on the Share Your Mayo Clinic Story open comment thread. ...On my second visit to Mayo ...