The Kiwi Connection

Rare PCL surgery paves rugby star’s road to recovery

Caleb Watene was on his way to becoming one of the top rugby players in New Zealand. He was a “winger,” a position that requires speed and agility.

But during a game when he was 15, he had an excruciatingly painful knee injury that brought him finally to Mississippi and to the surgeon who could repair it.

Dr. Jason Craft, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery  and sports medicine specialist at UMMC, says that the same kind of injury has ended the careers of many professional athletes in the U.S. and could have ended Caleb’s athletic life had the Watenes not found him.

Caleb is now back home in New Zealand after his surgery two months ago. He’s expected to make a full recovery and to regain at least some of his athletic prowess.

Caleb not only played for one of the top rugby teams in New Zealand, he has a black belt in tae kwon do, played soccer, water polo and rollerblade hockey and is a competitive swimmer and runner.

After the initial injury in 2007, New Zealand surgeons repaired ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tear, a common athletic injury.

But even after months of rehab, Caleb’s knee was no stronger.

“His knee was so unstable, even walking on flat ground could make his knee feel loose,” Craft said. Caleb was in pain and couldn’t depend on the knee to support him. His father, John, took him to one of the most noted surgeons in New Zealand who told the Watenes that no further surgery was necessary.

Caleb’s parents didn’t want to stop there. It was painful to see their athletic son relegated to spectator.

Just when they thought they had run out of options, they made a “small-world” connection. A house guest told them he knew Dr. James Hughes, the former chair of orthopedics and now director of the adult rehab center at UMMC. John sent Hughes a video that showed Caleb’s knee and the degree of its instability.

Hughes showed the video to Craft, and on the basis of what he saw in the video, Craft determined that Caleb probably had a serious (grade three) PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) injury. The good news to the Watenes was that Craft agreed to evaluate Caleb for surgery.

WHEN CRAFT WAS FINALLY ABLE TO EXAMINE Caleb, he found that three of the four ligaments that stabilize the knee were torn or injured. Though rare, the surgery Craft suggested was one he does five to ten times a year.

With tissue from people who donate body organs, Craft made a socket in the bone where the ligaments attach and fitted the new ligaments into the sockets. “Using the cadaver tissues meant we didn’t have to take anything from Caleb’s body to create the grafts, so his recovery was much easier,” Craft said.

Had he not had the surgery, Caleb would have had no hope of returning to any sports activity, Craft said. More important, however, was that abnormal “sliding” of the knee would have led to further cartilage damage and probably arthritis at an early age.

NOW, WITH RENEWED HOPE for Caleb’s future, his father recalls the warm welcome he and his son received here.

“I don’t think there is any way we can ever repay the people here. From the moment we arrived at the airport, all through our visits to the clinics and hospital, we never saw anything but kindness,” John said.

In America, Caleb developed a fondness for basketball and Southern food classics such as chicken pot pie and cornbread – joys he wants to share with his family when they all come to visit.

”The best thing Caleb has going for him is that he is young and highly motivated,” Craft said. “He pushed hard in therapy and was very compliant with everything we asked him to do.

Recovery will be a long process, but his family is great, and he wants to stay active. I think he’ll make a great recovery.”

-Janis Quinn

 

2009-04-10 00:00:00 18887