Racing After Surgery
How This 63-Year-Old Sprinted To Victory With A New Hip
The first surgeons Dana Potts consulted about a hip replacement told him his running days were over. But the only thing Potts wanted behind him was other runners. Motivated to keep running, the standout in the National Senior Games sought a second opinion and made an appointment with Dr. Richard A. Berger, a pioneer in minimally invasive hip and knee replacement surgery.
“Being a sprinter, Dana had larger muscles than normal,” said Dr. Berger, an assistant professor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “With the new approach I use, it was easy to complete the hip replacement without damaging any of the muscles, preserving them for Dana to compete and win medals.”
Fast Recovery
Compared to other hip replacement techniques, patients who undergo surgeries that use the “anterior-based, musclepreserving approach” experience less pain, faster short-term recovery and better long-term prognosis — without the usual worry of hip dislocation.
Instead of cutting soft tissue, Dr. Berger carefully removes the old hip in small pieces, operating between the layers of muscles, ligaments and tendons. He installs the new hip in the same fashion, without disrupting the patient’s soft tissue.
Since 2001, Dr. Berger has performed 10,000 musclesparing hip and knee replacements for a wide range of patients, including many current and former professional athletes.
“In fact, one golfer on the pro circuit won a major championship after I performed a joint replacement on him,” Dr. Berger said.
Most patients leave the hospital the same day or the following day, walking on their own and ready to start physical therapy immediately. Many return to work within several days and resume their favorite sports within weeks.
On Your Mark
Potts, a wealth management adviser in Illinois, ran track for one year in high school. He decided to resume his competitive running career decades later when he volunteered to coach track for middle school runners.
“To gain street cred with kids, you have to run with them instead of standing there with a whistle,” said Potts, 63. “Some of the kids said, ‘Mr. Potts, you’re a good runner. Why don’t you run a track meet?’”
At first, Potts doubted there were competitions for people his age, but then he discovered the National Senior Games, a biennial summer sports competition for men and women 50 and older.
After training for several months, Potts competed in a regional meet in the 800-meter event. He won a gold medal, which qualified him for the state meet, where he won another gold medal. That victory qualified him for the 2015 National Senior Games in Minnesota, where he placed 10th in the prelims, but felt grateful just to be there.
“I was running against ex-Olympians,” he recalled. “I was in the local paper. The kids were going crazy.”
Potts continued training three or four times a week, sprinting and running intervals on the track. The not-so-great high school athlete was finding his stride in his 50s. In 2016, he swept the Illinois state meet, winning gold in the 100-, 200-, 400and 800-meter races.
But in September of that year, while playing basketball with his daughter at the University of Illinois, Potts noticed pain in his hip that he couldn’t shake. He kept running despite the setback, but the pain eventually forced him to slow down, cut his distance and supplement running with biking — not what he wanted to do.
Medals After Surgery
Potts had never had surgery, but he was game for a hip replacement as long as he could continue running and competing.
“The first few surgeons I visited were top-shelf surgeons,” he said. “I went to them with my X-rays in my hands, holding my breath. They told me, ‘Sit down. This is it. You’re not going to be running. You’re not going to be playing basketball. You can bike. But you need a new hip and that’s it. You have to get this running thing out of your head.’”
Potts, however, wasn’t ready to pack up his track shoes. “I said, ‘I can’t get it out of my head. I’m not into the stationary bike,’” he explained. “Let me tell you, it’s depressing when some doctor says you’re not running again and no basketball.” Then Potts met Dr. Berger.
“I told him I was very, very interested, post-surgery, in running again,” Potts recalled. “Dr. Berger didn’t skip a beat. He said, ‘Why wouldn’t you run again?’”
Potts had same-day surgery in December 2016 and left the hospital by noon. The physical therapist came the next day, started him on some exercises and told him emphatically not to run. As soon as the therapist left, Potts jogged 100 feet to his mailbox just to see if he could do it. He continued to push himself, working out at his gym after finishing his regular PT.
Potts occasionally compared notes and progress with a friend who had undergone hip replacement surgery around the same time. He found that he had experienced significantly less pain than his friend, and his overall progress and recovery were much better.
That type of outcome was exactly what Dr. Berger was looking for 20 years ago when he began developing a minimally invasive way to perform hip replacements, an approach that would leave muscles, ligaments and tendons intact.Hip replacement surgery with Dr. Berger brought the joy of running back to Potts’ life.
“I was semi-sprinting three months after surgery,” Potts recalled. “Six and a half months after surgery with Dr. Berger, I won gold medals in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races at the state meet.”
Though Potts has since retired from competitive running, he still plays full-court basketball and runs several days a week along Lake Michigan.
“This surgery took me from some level of depression and grieving to rebirth and renewal — and ultimately three gold medals six months after surgery,” he said. To schedule a consultation please call Dr. Berger’s New Patient Liaison, Rachel Schiller at 312-432-2557.
“Being a sprinter, Dana had larger muscles than normal. With the new approach I use, it was easy to complete the hip replacement without damaging any of the muscles, preserving them for Dana to compete and win medals.” — Dr. Richard Berger