Active senior finds relief with Montana hip replacement
On a mild September afternoon, the painful twinges Gerry McAllister had been ignoring for months finally brought him to his knees.
The pain forced him off the golf course.
“I couldn’t walk — it was like someone had taken an axe to my hip,” says McAllister, 65. “It was a case of osteoarthritis in the joint that had come at me like a lightning bolt.
“After getting my diagnosis, my family doctor suggested I go on the waiting list for a total left hip replacement,” adds the Calgarian.
That was in 2016. After receiving a letter at the end of the year that his referral had been accepted, McAllister faced an excruciating eightto nine-month wait time before surgery, only to find out what he was actually waiting for was a consultation with the surgeon.
That didn’t happen until the following Christmas. At that point, he was told it would take at least another six months to get into the operating room.
“I looked at my wife and both our jaws hit the table. That would be a year and a half on the waitlist while living with a pain level of nine out of 10.
“I said, ‘That’s it. We’re going to Kalispell.’”
McAllister is among hundreds of Albertans who travel to Montana to Kalispell Regional Medical Center each year to seek relief through orthopedic procedures. The 160-bed facility is only a five-and-a-half hour drive away from Calgary, and in most cases can accept new patients for surgeries within four weeks.
In McAllister’s case, he was offered an operating time within three weeks. As well, his surgeon was trained to perform a sophisticated new procedure for which he would have had to wait up to three years in Calgary.
“I had my medical records sent down on a Monday and by Wednesday I had an appointment,” says McAllister, who received his new hip on Feb. 21.
Thanks to the quicker recovery times and lower chance of dislocations associated with what is referred to as a direct anterior procedure, McAllister hopes to be back golfing by April.
For his newfound mobility, McAllister paid US $25,000.
“I’m not a wealthy man, but I will pay for good health. My life with a bad hip was pretty marginal — I couldn’t sleep at night or continue to do any of the activities like hiking, golfing and skiing I had been enjoying in retirement,” he says.
“At 65 I probably have 10 really good years left, and maybe some less good ones after that. I just didn’t want to miss out.”
While procedures require cash payment up front, KRMC works with a patient financing company called Medicard that enables clients to make monthly payments. With a bustling medical tourism department to facilitate burgeoning demand, the Kalispell centre offers all the major specialties, other than organ transplants and treatment for major burns.
It’s also expanding rapidly in several key areas, including a $12.9 million Digestive Health Institute opening this summer and a 190,000-square-foot pediatric centre slated to open next spring.
“I would give my highest recommendation to any of my friends to go down there,” says McAllister, whose experience at Kalispell included a private hospital room, occupational therapy and followup care.
“The care I received was exceptional. Life is too short to live with that kind of intense pain,” says McAllister.
For more information on Kalispell Regional Medical Center, please visit krh.org/ visitmontana.
THIS STORY WAS CREATED BY CONTENT WORKS, POSTMEDIA’S COMMERCIAL CONTENT DIVISION, ON BEHALF OF KALISPELL REGIONAL HEALTHCARE.