The hardware in my body.

People have asked me what was put into my body after my injury.  Well I have quite a bit of titanium all over the place.

This first picture is of my right tibua.  It was smashed when I jumped up on the hood of the minivan that hit me.  The titanium rod was put in to support the bone by Dr. Matthew Jimenez.  He is a great guy who genuinely cared about me and my family. He not only runs marathons but ultramarathons too!  

 
 
This photo is of my spine from a side view.  This surgery lasted over 4 hours.  The metal put in my spine is designed to make sure it doesn't move over time and to release pressure.  Dr. Thomas Gleason performed the operation.  I will never forget how nice he was to my wife and family.  I wish more doctors were like him.
 
 
 
If you look off to the top right of this picture, you can see many white lines. These white lines are titanium clips put on my lymphatic system to stop leakage.
 
The tremendous impact of the minivan on my body not only caused the damage you just read about, but it also collapsed my right lung, broke all my ribs on my right side, lacerated my liver, ruptured my spkeen, and caused my lymphatic system to tear. This rip caused the lymphatic system to leak. Suffice it to say the leakage was serious enough to operate on. I had operations and diet changes to correct it but none worked. Finally, we decided to simply go in and clip any potential leakage points off. The surgery, which lasted over 5 hours, was done by Dr. Axel Joob who was the most colorful individual I remember from my hospital days at Advocate Lutheran General.  He has a great sense of humor and was nice to be around.
 

One last Dr. from this hospital I want to mention is Dr. Marin Marinov. He stabilized me in the Emergency Room and helped to save my life.

 
 
 


1 comment:

Tom Salonek said...

Thanks for sharing Pete. You're going to set off every airport metal detector from now on ;-)