I had the hip resurfacing procedure with Dr. Su in June of 2019 at the age of 19. I was injured at my home when I was 10 years old, I slipped and did the splits. At the time I thought I injured my groin, however it never got better. Within a month or so I was diagnosed with necrosis of the hip, and began my journey.

I was treated at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore as they have a well-regarded Perthes treatment center. Since I was so young, and Perthes causes the same thing I was treated as a Perthes patient, and at 10 had an external fixator put in place in order to distract the hip and allow the femoral head to heal. Unfortunately when it did heal there were impingements and shape issues that forced me to have a head splitting osteotomy when I was 14. That also didn’t work great leaving me in need of a new hip at the age of 19.

Even so, I was able to become a varsity swimmer for my high school, and played 2 years of Varsity lacrosse for my high school, finishing as one of the team captains my senior year. Of course, I basically had a fused hip and running definitely took its toll on my body as my form was seriously compromised. I graduated high school in the spring of 2018, and started at West Virginia University in the fall of 2018.

My dad and I were considering hip replacement options in 2018 and had learned of resurfacing with the H1 device. That was never going to pan out, however Andy Murray underwent his surgery in early 2019 and we read an article that quoted Dr. Su. We called Dr. Su and setup an appointment for May 2019, and in the meantime met with a local orthopedic who wanted to do a traditional hip replacement in the summer of 2019.

My dad and I went to NY to meet Dr. Su and talk through what our plan was with the local orthopedic, my case was complicated because I had 3 screws in my femoral head from the head splitting osteotomy and were under the impression a hip resurfacing wasn’t possible as a result. Dr. Su looked at the x-rays and thought he could do the resurfacing procedure. Given my age, the conservative approach was actually the resurfacing procedure, so that’s what we did in late June 2019.

The HSS experience was quite fantastic, we arrived the day before the procedure and departed 24 hours after the procedure. As a 19 year old kid I bounced back really quickly, in just a few days. I used a crutch for a few weeks to a month, and started physical therapy. By the time I went back to school in mid-August I was walking well, and feeling good.  I went to see Dr. Su a few times afterwards and learned that the procedure itself was difficult as my hip was so fused together that they were nearly unable to perform the resurfacing. That’s why you go to Dr. Su though, he took his time and eventually was able to perform the resurfacing using the Biomet implant. The Biomet minimized the amount of bone removed for the resurfacing thus avoiding the screws, although 1 screw was removed for the procedure.

After meeting with Dr. Su over winter break 2020 I was cleared for all activity and decided to pick up my lacrosse stick and go out for the club team. I had been shagging balls and shooting around in the fall and felt good and strong. I’m currently a sophomore at WVU and playing lacrosse, albeit I’m knocking the rust off and getting my fitness back. I can’t thank Dr. Su enough for helping me get my life back, I feel really good these days, am walking at about 95% of normal and living life to its fullest.