Event leads to a hip replacement for physiotherapist Sally

Physiotherapist Sally Kibble got more than she bargained for when she attended an educational event at Fortius Clinic Wimbledon and ended up having a robotic assisted hip replacement a few weeks later.

Sally, who is 68 years old and lives in Croydon, was diagnosed with a subluxation (or half dislocation) of the left hip in September 2019. She started having problems in 2004 when she couldn’t prepare properly to run a marathon. Sally felt she was too young at that point so put off doing anything about it until her hip got gradually worse.

She said: “I have been a sportswoman for a long time and done everything from running marathons when I was 50 years old, teaching aerobics for 30 years, PE teaching and now standing on my feet all day as a physiotherapist. If the hip hadn’t been so painful, I could have lived with it but it got to the stage where it was debilitating and I was limping so badly. A friend of mine who is a physiotherapist said that I owed it to my husband to get myself sorted.”

By coincidence, Sally was invited to a referrer educational event about joint replacement surgery at Fortius Clinic Wimbledon. Having listened to a panellist of Fortius surgeons discussing robotic assisted joint replacements, Sally made an appointment to see Fortius Consultant Hip and Knee Surgeon Mr Sulaiman Alazzawi who operates at the Fortius Joint Replacement Centre at Spire St Anthony’s Hospital. Sally had a consultation and scan then had surgery 11 days later.

Sulaiman said: “I know Sally was concerned about whether the operation involved having a general anaesthetic. Fortunately, with the Mako this is not necessary and she was able to have a spinal block. It was important to do Sally’s surgery sooner rather than later as she was in pain so I didn’t want to delay it any longer than necessary.”

Sally was in hospital for one night and had no pain after the operation or since then. She is continuing with physiotherapy as she’s asked Mr Alazzawi if she can go skiing this winter.

“Mr Alazzawi did a fantastic job,” said Sally. “The Mako robot really is the best thing since sliced bread. I’m still doing my exercises and it’s all going great. I got back to work sooner than I thought I would and although my running will be limited, I can cycle and swim instead. I would have liked to have given myself another five years before replacing my joint but on the plus side because I’m younger my rehab has been quicker.”