Orthopaedic Spine Patient Gold Medalist Paralympic Chris Waddell shares his story
Gold Medalist Paralympic Chris Waddell
When Dr. Brodke told me I'd need surgery within the year, it took me completely by surprise. With winter snow still clinging to the cirque surrounding the University of Utah Orthopedic Center, the spring heat had just started to rise, bringing with it the promise of another beautiful summer. I thought of my career as a Paralympic athlete. Just a month prior I'd finished twelfth at the Boston Marathon. Even though I had retired from ski racing after the 2002 Paralympics in Salt Lake, I still loved the sport and had fully enjoyed all parts of the mountain during the winter.
Denial set in. I didn't need the surgery. Why would I subject myself to three months of recovery when I lived pain free except for the bone on bone rubbing of my ribs and the top of my hip girdle on my left side? Dr. Brodke said that my scoliosis would only get worse in time and that the vertebrae below my original fusion would continue to deteriorate, meaning that in time, they would need to take the fusion lower on my spine to find solid bone in which to anchor. Fusing more vertebrae would mean limiting my mobility. It was time to act.
When I broke my back in a skiing accident in 1988, I didn't choose where I had the surgery. I didn't choose my surgeon. Often, I wondered if my scoliosis was a result of that original surgery, where the doctor didn't take into account that I would want to continue to lead an active lifestyle. Seventeen years later, I doubted I would need this surgery, if the original one had been more successful.
I didn't want to make the same mistake. With the benefit of time, and a vastly expanded network of experts in orthopedics and spinal cord injuries, I looked around. Would it make more sense to return to Boston, or maybe go to Atlanta, Colorado or California? I did my research assuming that the best decision lay somewhere outside of Utah, but the more I talked to people, the more I read, the more I realized the best decision lay right in front of me. Not only was there a new state-of-the-art facility here, Dr. Darrel S. Brodke was part of a faculty of world-renowned physicians.
The day before surgery Dr. Brodke said, "We want to make you straight and athletic." A little more than a year after the surgery, I can say that he achieved both objectives. I'm straight, fit, and even almost two inches taller.
For me, the surgery was right in my backyard. For my parents, the airport made flights from the East Coast convenient. One time during my recovery, they played golf on the University course while I napped in my nearby hospital room. Nestled at the base of the mountains, above a peaceful city, the setting provided the perfect environment for recovery, and a stark contrast to the scary streets, car alarms, and screaming sirens of my first hospital experiences in Hartford and Boston. Recovering outside in the late August, evening sun, I almost forgot the thirteen-inch scar on back and the eight hours of surgery.
