This real patient was compensated for the time they took to share their personal experience with the InternalBrace procedure.
Firefighting is a demanding physical job that takes a toll on the back, knees, and ankles. A typical day may involve lugging 60 to 70 pounds of gear, climbing stairs and ladders, and practicing mandatory full-body workouts. Ironically, for firefighter Mike S, it was a relatively easy routine morning check of the firetruck that nearly derailed his career. Mike was finishing up and stepped backwards off the truck and onto a curb when he twisted his left ankle. He felt his foot fold under him and he heard a pop. His ankle and leg instantly swelled up to his knee and he couldn’t put any weight on his foot.
Mike had suffered a similar injury on his right ankle years earlier so he knew he had a serious ankle injury and needed help. His squad took him to the emergency room, where, true to his intuition, x-rays and an MRI revealed he had grade 3 ligament tears in his ankle. Mike was facing his worst fear—having to step down from the job he loved. “Being a firefighter means to me, brotherhood. It’s a family. Helping other people at their worst time is a gift in itself,” Mike says.
Mike went to an orthopedic surgeon who started him on conservative treatment with physical therapy to strengthen the ankle, but his ankle pain persisted and he wasn’t seeing the results he needed to return to active duty. In his early 30s, healthy, and physically fit, Mike says “It was tough for me because I’m a very active individual. My self-esteem went down because I couldn’t be back on the job.”
After 3 months, Mike and his doctor decided that ankle surgery would be a better choice. Fortunately, Mike’s surgeon was a foot and ankle specialist trained in the InternalBrace ligament augmentation procedure, a revolutionary advancement in sprained ankle injury repair.
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For patients with ankle instability, the InternalBrace provides additional soft tissue-to-bone fixation that supports the primary repair during the healing phase, which may help speed up the recovery process. Mike’s outpatient surgery required only a small incision on the outside of his ankle and took less than an hour.
“Rehab was great! I had the surgery done,” Mike said, “and—a miracle—a month and a week later, I was back to work full duty. I was doing things on my left ankle that I couldn’t do on my right ankle 5 years after traditional surgery on that ankle. It was two different spectrums as far as stabilization goes.” Mike even goes so far to say that he’d like to have the InternalBrace procedure on his other ankle.
Back on the job after what once could have been a career-ending injury, Mike says “the InternalBrace procedure was by far the best choice for me. To be honest, my ankle feels stronger than it was before the surgery.”
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