As a television medical correspondent for
decades on shows like Today, Dateline and the CBS evening
News and author of 12 books on consumer medicine, I have to
admit it. I have never faced a more vexing decision than
that choosing between a total hip replacement and hip
resurfacing. The claims and data appeared wildly
contradictory and each surgeon’s take was miles apart from
the others.  I called great friends in orthopedics at
the leading Harvard hospitals and in NY, Baltimore and Los
Angeles. The word I got was emphatic. Don’t do the hip
resurfacing, it’s a failed concept. It failed in the 70s and
its doomed to fail again. They cited a high rate of femoral
fracture after the operation. They also said I could get the
same advantages out of the new total hips as resurfacing…low
dislocation, high activity levels and the addition of much
longer implant life than HR. A new study from the AAOS 2008
meeting even showed that some of the apparent advantages of
HR were due to self selection. Simply put, younger patients
chose resurfacing so it became a self fulfilling
prophesy…younger patients had HR, worked harder afterward
and did better. In other words, it wasn’t HR, it was self
selection.

After years of marathons, bike races, ski competitions,
marathon cross ski races, big wall ice climbing, big wave
surfing and even accumulating a little shrapnel in a handful
of wars, both of my hips were completely shot. The x-rays
showed pure bone on bone with enormous osteophytes. One
prominent surgeon said, you have no choice. Your hips are
too far gone you’ll have to have THR. I thought for a
moment. Boy if I’m confused as a physician and sports
medicine expert, what chance on earth does the average
patient have of making the right decision? One good answer
is, because they are both excellent choices. Still there had
to be a right decision.

I began reading the entire world literature. I called
doctors in France, England, Belgium, Germany. The more I
read, the less I seemed to know. I reached out to

Mr. Ronan Treacy, co inventor of the Birmingham hip and
even the legendary Roger Banister’s son. Both were
incredibly thoughtful and helpful. Both said they’d have HR
themselves.

Then I came upon

Surface Hippy Website and read everything on it.
Finally, I watched the outstanding

Dr. Michael Mont video on Pat’s website.  I went
back over my notes, reread the literature and it suddenly
became incredibly clear. What did I really want? I wanted to
be able to heli ski, run the iron man, ski race, jump out of
airplanes, do triathalons, surf bigger waves. I wanted to
perform like a 25 year old again. I had the heart and lungs
to do so, but the hips of a 90 year old. You only live once,
so why compromise, why not go for it? There was the promise
of turning back the clock. With THR I’d be restricted.
Certainly no surgeon in his right mind would recommend a
marathon with a THR. Still the THR was the safe route. Stick
to biking and skiing the groomed slopes and THR would
probably last a life time, said one surgeon. THR was a safe
bet, a sure bet. The THR operation was faster and the
recovery might be quicker as well. But as the star of the
hit TV show Doctor Danger, I was expected to do extreme
sports and the THR would ever allow that. Dr. Danger is
featured at www.mojohd.com
I spend much of each year in Africa on humanitarian
projects, see featured video on

You Tube called

Emergency in Dafur  The decision ended up being a no brainer. Hip resurfacing
with two BHRs.

Here’s how I finally made the decision.

With the decision made, now I needed
a surgeon. I offered to fly to Birmingham, England to
have one of the inventors do the procedure. Graciously,
they said, no need. You’ll find a

Dr. Edwin Su at the Hospital for Special Surgery in
NY. He had their highest recommendation and that of
every key player I could reach. HSS is considered number
one in the US in Orthopedics. Their chief, Tom Sculco
weighed in. “Ed is one of our very best.” Wow. This was
the surgeon my great friend and physiatrist VJ Vad had
recommended six months before. I called Dr Su’s office
on a Friday morning. After 15 minutes of scrambling, his
incredibly affective assistant Laura Janice had an OR
date set for the following Thursday. I had spent the
weekend in Aspen boosting my hemotacrit up to 48 so I
wouldn’t need a transfusion. On Monday I had a complete
cardiac workup, x-rays and a visit with Dr. Su. He
demonstrated that I had 30 degree hip contractures on
both sides. Any questions he said? A Month before I
would pummeled him with dozens. I just turned to him and
said. “You’re the best there is. I just want a near
perfect biomechanical result. You’re a great surgeon and
I trust you. “ The die was cast.

I skied right through my last day before surgery, flew
to Washington for a meeting on a young cancer victim in
Iraq we were efforting treatment for and arrived in NYC
at 1 AM on the day of surgery. I worked out for two
hours at the gym, then reported to the hospital. At 1:30
PM Dr, Su appeared. “I’m psyched,” I said. “So am I’”
said Dr. Su.

I was wheeled down a long corridor that looked more like
a star wars bionics laboratory than OR. Less than four
hours later I was in recovery, on my computer and making
a conference call. The following day I walked to the
nurses station and back with crutches. Dr. Su came to
visit each morning with a ready smile and encouraging
manner. His bedside manner got a solid A plus as did the
remarkable team at HSS. I was sad to leave!

By day ten, I had walked a mile on crutches, by day
twelve, three miles. Now that I’m two weeks out I’m
beginning to let myself dream of all things I’ll be able
to do again that I’ve put on hold for so long…a much
better pop for surfing, more precise racing turns in
skiing, running, rock climbing, even the Ironman. I
wondered why I had waited so long. The answer was simple
– Most orthopods say…you’ll know when you’re ready. The
truth is I had been ready for years. While Americans
emphasize pain as the main reason for surgery, I have a
very high threshold, did tons of yoga and never had
terrible pain. The British emphasize functional
criterion. I had a terrible limp, striking waddling gait
abnormalities, an abductor lurch and large hip
contractures. As my fourteen year old son said before
surgery, “Dad, you look old, really old.” If I had one
piece of advice it would be, get a great functional exam
and use that to decide rather than pain alone. Curiously,
all my pain was in my knees. My hips had thrown my
biomechanics off so badly, that I was at risk of slowly
destroying my knees.

Well. I think I’ve turned back the clock, gained 1.5
inches of height, regained my proper posture and
discovered a miracle that Pat has been a champion of for
so long. I’ve been disappointed by the amount of real
expertise and helpful decision making information on so
much of the web. As a physician I can tell you the

surfacehippy.info  website is the best I have ever
seen in a medical website. Even now after my operation,
I scroll through the site each evening picking up new
and useful tips on recovery and PT. Pat, you’re a real
hero to more people than you’ll ever know!