AM Buffalo

Actions

Knee replacement gives a former football player and gym owner a new leash on life

Posted at 5:40 PM, Apr 05, 2022
and last updated 2022-04-08 15:51:18-04

After years of suffering from one-to-many tackles on the football field, Buffalo local Bob Bateson, owner of Body Blocks Fitness decided it was time for knee replacement.

He turned to Dr. Richard Berger, a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon in Chicago who is known for his minimally invasive approach to hip and knee replacement which allows for a quicker recovery. Bob says the biggest thing was that his product is far superior, and I interviewed other doctors and other products at the same time, and I went to Dr. Berger who I followed for twelve to fifteen years because of his research and his ingenuity and development, being an MIT engineering graduate first before becoming an orthopedic surgeon gave him the knowledge to help invent different tools to do this minimally invasive work on knees and/or hips.

Dr. Richard Berger says about twenty years ago I invented minimally invasive hip and knee replacement, that’s doing the same procedure with a different technique. He says we don’t cut the muscles, ligaments and tendons; that results in less pain, less swelling, a much quicker recovery, and less need for physical therapy; basically, it just gets people back to their lives quicker. Bob Bateson says recovery to about full range of motion was about five weeks.

Dr. Berger says BEST is a program that we put together. He says it stands for Berger Elective Surgical and Telemedicine experience where we marry together surgery and telemedicine, and so, patients will see us via the computer initially, we will set up surgery; they will come in and have the surgery with us here in Chicago but then they will go back home right away and we will follow up with them via the computer or they’ll do physical therapy, if they want, via the computer as well. So, he says, it makes it very easy for them to get us to see them and take care of them from any place in the country, in fact, from any place in the world.

As far as him being out of town, that protocol, Bob says that his staff is so on point with staying in touch with you, they are like a phone call away and they respond to you immediately. He says I was super impressed with them, and I felt like I knew them forever. I would do it again and recommend it to anybody, due to his surgery and the procedure afterwords.

Dr. Berger says the computer and telemedicine has been the great equalizer, so patients can get world class surgery easily, no matter where they live.

Dr. Berge has performed surgery on big names sports people, celebrities and even the former President George W. Bush.

For appointments call 312-433-2557 or visit outpatienthipandknee.com