Coral Springs Woman Walking Again After Two Hip Replacements

After having total hip replacement surgery on both of her hips earlier this year, Mariola Barton of Coral Springs is back to the active and energetic “normal me” - all thanks to Baptist Health orthopedic surgeon Alexander Gaukhman, M.D. and the same-day surgery staff at the new Toby & Leon Cooperman Medical Arts Pavilion at Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
[Transcript]
- My name is Mariola Barton. I am a market manager. I achieve always what I wanted to be, financial specialist and to be very good banker so I can say that I achieved that because I was very focused on my career. I am originally from Poland, so forgive my accent. Before I moved to Florida, I live in New York, New Jersey. In 1994, I moved to Florida, and I love Florida. I have my son here and I have little granddaughter, Ava, eight years old. She called me babcia, grandma, so that's in Polish. Always Fridays she sleeps over. We watch movies and Saturday we go for breakfast and when it's weather is nice and cool, we go to the beach and do something, like walking on the beach. I walk a lot, I love to walk. And last July I start feeling more pain in my left hip. I couldn't function. I even had to take a leave of absence at my job. So currently still I am on leave of absence 'cause of my situation.
- Hi, I am Alex Gaukhman, I'm an orthopedic surgeon at Baptist Health Orthopedic Care. When I first met Ms. Barton, she presents to my office with pain in her left hip only, and on her initial evaluation she had bone-on-bone arthritis in her left hip.
- When they took the X-ray, Dr. Gaukhman told me the other hip is also starting to have the bone-on-bone. So eventually, but nobody could predict when, the surgery going to be on the second hip. He said, let's take care of the left hip and then depend how you feel we're going to decide.
- Mariola was a good candidate for a total hip replacement because she exhausted conservative management. She had bone-on-bone arthritis, and she continued to have pain on a day-to-day basis, which was interfering with her quality of life. The total hip replacement essentially is like a change on your tire. What we're doing is changing the arthritic cartilage in the hip or the knee and we're replacing it with metal and plastic. I would say in my career, I've probably done close to about 300 to 400 total hip replacements. Mariola's first total hip was performed at the hospital. She was discharged the same day, and after the opening of the Cooperman Medical Arts Pavilion, she had her other hip performed here again, on a same-day basis.
- I just look at him and my tears were falling from my eyes and I say, "Oh my God, I'm afraid." He say, "We're going to help you." So I felt I had the confidence that he would help me, and I said, "Doctor, I trust you." I say, "Wow, what a beautiful facility." He said, "You're going to have your surgery here, "on the third floor." I said, "Really, I don't need to go to hospital?" I was actually relieved that I don't need to go to the regular hospital, only to have it there. Everybody was very friendly.
- Patients should come to Baptist Health Orthopedics for their care because we have a all-encompassing team with anesthesiologists, physical therapists, and clinical staff that are all focused on ensuring the highest quality of care. I think the benefits of performing total hip and total knee same-day surgery at the Medical Arts Pavilion, is to ensure the highest quality care with staff that are focused solely on same-day discharge, educating and counseling the patients on what to look for.
- Probably three hours later after the surgery, I was able to go home. Probably in a week, 10 days, I walked without the walker and I said, "Okay, I can do it." So every day was better and better and better.
- Mariola is doing great now, after the hip replacement. She's back being active and playing tennis and and golf.
- I didn't have to go to physical therapy. I was doing some exercises that they gave me what to do every day. I was so familiar with the exercises, then for me it was just repetition. I feel amazing, you see me driving my car, I'm back to my normal life. I praise Dr. Gaukhman, he brought my life back to me. He's my hero.