When Kenneth Willams fell and injured his knee, his son, Fernando rushed him to the hospital. Meeting with Dr. Baqai, a vascular surgeon, they realized that the road to recovery was longer than first expected.
Before Dr. Baqai could start working on the wound on Kenneth’s knee a big task lay ahead of them. Kenneth needed a re-vascularization from his abdominal aorta to both of his groins and a treatment for an eschar over his knee caused by pressure necrosis. Yes, this operation was as complicated as it sounds.
Now turning to the wound on the knee
When Dr. Baqai had managed to successfully get the vascular challenges/situation under control, he could finally start working on the wound on Kenneth´s knee. He quickly came to terms with the gravity of the condition of that wound.
Dr. Baqai had some experience with Kerecis, but this was by far the toughest challenge for the fish skin graft in Dr. Baqais hands and Kenneth was willing to go with anything that Dr. Baqai proposed, given the relationship they had built during the previous operation.
The only way is up… from the wheelchair
Kenneth was told at another clinic he went to that he shouldn´t expect to walk out of there since he didn´t walk in. That did however not affect dr Baqai´s ambition at Ascension Illinois in Chicago for getting him healed.
For the coming months a lot of perseverance, mental fortitude and willpower was needed and not only for the physical hurdles/challenges but also the mental ones.
Kenneth had gone from an active man to being wheelchair bound, but for him the only way was up, up from the wheelchair. Fernando stated“It’s hard for a man who has been a man all his life to be told to sit and don’t do this and don’t do that.”
The fish skin graft was applied on a weekly basis. Dr. Baqai and his medical personnel saw a tremendous fast healing process from the start. His fear was though, that as it was placed over a knee joint, Kenneth might develop a contracture that could limit his ability to walk. But the fish skin graft not only healed the wound at unexpected speed but also turned out to be more elastic/extendable than dr. Baqai expected.
Standing by his son at the wedding
By his side throughout the entire process was Kenneth´s son Fernando. Kenneth went from walking to being carried by a son that he used to carry and now his son’s big day was coming up. Kenneth was getting married.
Kenneth therefore made it one of his first milestones of recovery to be able to stand at his son’s wedding, which he did.
The next goal is a moving target
Now that Kenneth is out of the wheelchair, he has set another ambitious target. This time it is a moving target, namely his 6 years old grandson Trent Williams.
“The milestone for me now is to be able to chase my grandson around, walk him around the block, help him play ball, learn how to ride his bike.”
Seeing the speed of little Trent running around the house, one could say it’s an ambitious goal for Kenneth, but we have learned never to discount Kenneth / write Kenneth off when it comes to big challenges.
