Lindsay couple share hip experience in support of local hospital
Erik Ellis has been active all his life, doing his best to live a healthy one as well.
So, when he began experiencing pain, he simply thought he had pulled a muscle. As time went on, the pain impacted every part of his life, from work to his favourite sports.
“I’ve been playing hockey since I was five years old, but I couldn’t lean over to tie up my skates. Once I did, I couldn’t accelerate on the ice. In the warmer months, I could no longer walk the golf course,” explains Ellis.
The tipping point came when Ellis and his wife Denise took a trip to mark their 30th anniversary. The pain impeded most of the activities they had planned. When they returned home, she insisted he call the doctor.
He was shocked to learn he not only had osteoarthritis but needed a hip replacement.
“My diagnosis had me worrying if I would ever get back to my normal pace and all of the activities that keep me young,” said Ellis in a media release.
“Fortunately, we live in a community with advanced hospital services. In fact, Ross Memorial was the first hospital in Ontario to use the new hip replacement implant technology that got me back up and moving.”
Dr. Sebastian Heaven conducted the surgery in January using the new, less invasive femoral stem implant procedure. Ellis headed home the same day after meeting with a physiotherapist to ensure he could walk with a walker and go up and down stairs with a cane. Four weeks later, he no longer needed the cane.
Ellis continues doing physiotherapy exercises and looks forward to walking the golf course and hiking the trails with his wife and their friends this summer.
“With our local population set to double in the next decade, we must ensure the Ross is equipped with the tools and facilities it needs to provide the best care and services,” said Ellis.
It’s a big reason why the Ellis’s have shared their experience in the Ross Memorial Hospital’s spring appeal letter that will be mailed throughout Kawartha Lakes.
“So many people are involved in a patient’s care. That includes our family of donors,” notes Ross Memorial Hospital Foundation CEO Erin Coons.
“As the hospital needs to grow services and spaces, and implement advancements in medical science, we count on our generous community to help fund equipment, technology and capital projects that are not covered through government funding. It takes all of us to keep our hometown hospital providing firstrate care.”
The highest priority investments at Ross Memorial include the future expansion and modernization of the hospital’s emergency department and intensive care unit, the community’s new MRI and CT scanner, bedside equipment including the new fleet of intravenous pumps, and the clinical information system that connects patients’ digital health information records to medical technology.
The majority of these needs are not funded by the government.
For more information or to make a donation to the campaign, visit rmh.org/foundation.