Moll
Cherian, MD, was thrilled to
be back in England, visiting two of her
daughters. She and her husband had
practiced medicine there for 20 years
but had moved to Carrollton in 2000.
“The evening of Oct. 3, my daughter
and her husband were out and we
were putting the children to bed,”
Dr. Cherian, 77, recalls. “As I was
coming down the narrow stairs, I
missed one step and fell down five
or six to the floor.”
The result was a broken hip socket,
which is not your normal hip fracture.
Because this bone has to heal naturally,
Dr. Cherian had a four-month-long
healing process, including a month of
traction, to endure before she could
return home to the United States for
a hip replacement. And even then,
X-rays revealed that the bone hadn’t
healed properly.
Her husband, a retired orthopedic
surgeon himself, had called acquaintances
back in Texas, hoping they could find
a surgeon to do her hip replacement
in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. One
of those contacts was longtime friend
Charles Tandy, MD, a veteran physician
at Methodist Dallas Medical Center.
He recommended Phil Berry, MD, as
one of the top orthopedic surgeons in
the field.
A godsend in Dr. Berry
Dr. Berry, who also practices at
Methodist Dallas, did not disappoint
the Cherians. Through emailed
X-rays and medical information,
he determined that Dr. Cherian’s
fracture had resulted in one leg being
shorter than the other. Both a bone
graft and hip replacement would
be needed. But Dr. Berry could
offer Dr. Cherian something many
doctors cannot: the anterior approach
hip replacement, a procedure he’s
performed more than 800 times in
the past eight years.
“People do their research, and
they come from all over to have this
procedure done,” Dr. Berry says. “The
anterior approach, which means we
enter the hip from the front of the
joint, offers much faster rehabilitation
because we can go between muscle
layers instead of having to cut muscle.
Patients can actually start walking the
same day as the surgery and usually
head home — not to rehab, but
home — the following afternoon.”
Dr. Berry says while patients with
other hip surgeries have just as good
outcomes, patients who have the
anterior approach have a much
shorter recovery — three weeks as
opposed to three months.
“If I had mine done, this is the way
I’d want to have it done,” he says.
Ready for life after recovery
Dr. Cherian received her new hip in
February 2013. She was more than
ready to travel to India this past winter
and now looks forward to more trips to
see her grandchildren.
“I’m so grateful for the help we
received at Methodist Dallas,” she says.
That’s what frie
When an overseas trip resulted in a fractured hip,
Molly Cherian, MD, trusted a referral to Methodist Dallas
6
Methodist Dallas Medical Center
•
❁
Spring 2014
