First and foremost, I’d like to wish Cooper a full & speedy recovery. At the end of the day the health and function of his limbs is the most important thing here.
Ban monegal effective immediately and stop any patient going to him wherever possible. If I can save one life, leg or limb than I feel my diary has serve good for this community. Why let dishonest/crook surgeon come to forum and exploit the harmony of forum and most importantly destroyed people lives.
I do however want to voice my opinion on comments he’s made that I don’t particularly find balanced/fair. Now, before all of you known trolls come out of the woodwork to tell me that I’m a fake, made-up patient who doesn’t know what he’s talking about then let me stop you in your tracks. I know Cooper. I was in Barcelona doing bilateral femurs when he arrived for his tibia surgery. I showed him around the guest house before his operation, and we’ve broken bread together many times since. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cooper, not only as a fellow patient, but also as a human being that has been VERY successful in the REAL world due to his own hard-work and perseverance.
Therefore, you can imagine that he was at the top of my list when it came time to talk about possibly doing bilateral tibias with Dr. Monegal. I spoke to Cooper on the phone for more than an hour about his tibia complications, his post-op dialog w/ Monegal, and his follow up visits with other doctors. Yet, after hearing all of his complaints I still decided to give Dr. Monegal the benefit of the doubt and I went through with my bilateral tibia surgery. YES, you’ve read that correctly. Even after hearing the “nightmare” that Cooper experienced, I still opted to undergo the exact same surgery with the exact same doctor. Do I regret this decision? No, not at all. If you’re wondering, why? Keep reading.
As always there are two sides to every story. As was explained to me, Monegal did recognize that Cooper had a problem, largely due to misalignment that had occurred during the distraction process. However, to Dr. Monegal, this misalignment was always within a manageable range and his intention was to correct this when Cooper returned to have his other tibia operated on. Unfortunately, by this time Cooper had lost all faith in Dr. Monegal and shut him out completely. From my understanding the proposed fix should have taken Monegal approx. 15 min via the manipulation of Cooper’s leg and some existing screws. The end result would have been the introduction of a “polar” screw that sits behind the fitbone nail and anchors it in place so that it cannot deviate inside the tibial canal. As a preventative measure Monegal placed 2 such “polar” screws in my tibias and I can tell you that I suffer from no misalignment. I have lengthened 4.5cm to date and my implants are anchored just as well as they were the day of surgery. I have little to no discomfort, have ankle flexion of 120 degrees, and am generating bone in both tibias and fibulas.
To surmise:
Do I think that Cooper had legitimate concerns regarding the evolution of his tibia? Yes, absolutely.
Do I think that Dr. Monegal was willing, wanting, and capable of addressing Cooper’s concerns? Yes, I do. If he’s talented enough to fix compound fractures & limbs on the verge of amputation under his watch as an orthopedic trauma surgeon, I doubt cosmetic misalignments fall beyond his ability.
Do I have an opinion on whose fault it was that Dr. Monegal lost Cooper’s trust? That’s finger pointing that wouldn’t do anyone any good. At the end of the day I think there was a massive failure in communication between patient/doctor, and had this not been the case the outcome may have been very very different.
Moral of the story:
LL is extreme surgery. Complications can & do arise. Doctors are not perfect nor infallible. Patients are not perfect nor infallible. If you don’t have 100% confidence in your surgeon, or have reason to believe that your confidence in them may be eroded should you encounter a complication, DO NOT commit to surgery.
Best to all & happy lengthening.
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Topic: Fitbone Stage Right Tibia Lenghtening (Dr. Monegal), Barcelona, Spain (Read 68915 times)