How many years would you be able to live with constant knee pain and a crooked leg? It’s not a question many want to even consider, but for one South Dakota man, he’s finally walking without pain and in a straight line for the first time in decades.
A quick look at the walls of his Man Cave, and you can tell Wayne Hangelfelt has a passion for the outdoors.
"Yeah, I shot all of them but two," Wayne said as he points out the various deer and animal mounts on the walls. "Two of them were (shot by) my daughters, but my elk, I shot that, I don't know, three years ago! My nephew was with me and my brother-in-law, and I told my them, I don't know how far I can walk because my knee gets sore, but we got her done!" said Henglefelt.
That knee pain was the constant reminder of a car accident at 18, that broke both of Wayne's legs. He had metal rods put into his shins to help correct the breaks, but that unfortunately led to his legs becoming crooked as they healed, leading to a limp and even more surgeries over the years.
“It was terrible pain, that one. I mean, it was terrible pain, and then it didn't work. Went right back to how it was, and I thought, Oh, God, now what do we do? So I just, I figured I'd end up walking on it the rest of my life, you know?” said Henglefelt.
“A lot of times when people have fractures that involve the joint themselves, they can develop this post-traumatic arthritis. What made his unique was that he had surgery to try and correct it at a young age. That necessarily didn't work for him. In fact, it failed. So that's why he came to see us with hardware in the knee already,” said Benjamin Walters, DO with Avera Orthopedics.
Correcting Wayne's injuries would be a challenge for any surgeon, but after reviewing the images, Dr. Walters drew up a plan to try and correct Wayne's pain once and for all.
“The big thing for him was he had both the really bad deformity, and he also had the hardware of the knee. So we discussed, is this going to be a stage process? Which typically for something like this, we do. And we discussed that as his probably number one option, we're going to take the nail out, give it some time to heal, and then we'll go back and then do the knee replacement,” said Walters.
“And I told him, I said, Wow, whatever you do, please try to get it all done in one day!" laughed Henglefelt.
“Obviously, we had a backup plan saying if we get the nail out and it was more complicated, we would move on to a two-stage. He was quite optimistic and hopeful we could do it in one stage, and that's what we accomplished,” said Walters.
After almost three hours in surgery and years of being out of alignment, Wayne's legs are finally straight.
“(showing the MRI scans) And before, you could see how off it was. So he had quite a deformity in that whole lower extremity. We were able to correct that in the knee joint itself and give him a straight leg,” said Walters.
“How? You know, how do you walk on a leg like that for so long? I can't say enough about Dr. Walters. He just did an amazing job,” said Henglefelt.
“It's rewarding to have a patient like Wayne come in here with a real problem, a real difficulty with mobility, a deformity that's noticeable just watching him walk, and have him come out of the OR that day and walk with a straight leg. It's very rewarding to have that kind of patient interaction,” said Walters.
Now Wayne can shoot pool or deer without any lingering leg pain. This new reality isn't the only new thing, according to his wife.
“She told me that his nickname from his friends was 'Boomerang.' I'm like, well, 'Boomerang' needs a new nickname now, because his leg is straight," said Walters.
“I'm glad he had the guts to do it, you know? Yeah, he did a remarkable job,” said Henglefelt.
Dr. Walters credits advances in surgical technology that allow surgeons to be more precise and the hardware itself to last longer. Every patient's injury and recovery is unique, but options are available to help reduce pain and get patients back on their feet.
