Back on His Feet and Back on the Slopes
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When retired family doctor Dennis Brodie began experiencing knee pain, he knew exactly what was coming. “It got to the point where every step hurt,” he recalls. “I had to stop doing all the things I loved — skiing, skating, hockey.
After a consultation at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH), Dennis was scheduled for total knee replacement surgery with orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Thomas Zochowski. The surgery would be assisted by a new piece of technology: ROSA, a robotic orthopaedic surgical assistant that’s transforming joint replacement surgery at OTMH.
ROSA helps surgeons make more precise cuts and alignments, which means less damage to surrounding tissue and much faster recoveries. In fact, about 80% of patients now go home the same day.
Dennis was one of them. “When I woke up, the physiotherapist had me standing, doing stairs,” he says. “I went home that same day — pain-free.”
Within a month, Dennis had regained full range of motion and was walking independently. A few weeks later, he was mowing his lawn. By winter, he’s planning to ski again.
Having spent more than 40 years referring patients for surgery, Dennis says he’s amazed at how far technology has come. “In my day, the results weren’t always great. What’s possible now is incredible and I got to experience it myself.”
Thanks to donor support, ROSA was brought to OTMH at just the right time to help Dennis — and more than 100 other patients so far — get back to the life they love.
