Patient Story · Video
From the wreck of Amtrak 188 — back to 100% range of motion.
Nicholas suffered a torn MCL, ACL, lateral meniscus, and fractures in the 2015 Amtrak 188 train derailment. After staged surgeries with Dr. Sabrina Strickland and 18 months of physical therapy, he is back to all of his prior activities.
Watch Nicholas's story
Transcript
In Nicholas's words
A traumatic injury, a confident plan, and a full recovery.
I was in a 2015 train derailment, and as a result of that I suffered a traumatic injury to my right knee, which included torn MCL, torn ACL, torn lateral meniscus, and a couple of fractures. I was unable to walk and participate in any of the activities that I had previously participated in.
Meeting with Dr. Strickland, she was very confident in her approach and very detailed in her analysis in terms of what she wanted to do with respect to the surgery she was going to perform on my knee. And so that detailed analysis and confidence really diminished the fears that I had in terms of being able to make a full recovery.
Unfortunately, his injury involved both an ACL tear as well as a meniscal tear — and the meniscus was essentially stuck in the middle of his knee. So what that meant is he really couldn't move it. So I started out by just repairing the meniscus, because his risk of stiffness was so high if I did them all at the same time. Impressively, not only did he get his range of motion back, that meniscus healed, and I was able to go back and reconstruct his ACL.
“It was really a rocky start. When a patient's knee gets that stiff before you've even had the opportunity to operate on it, it makes the whole process a lot more difficult — and he's done amazingly well.” — Dr. Strickland
In connection with the surgeries, I underwent about a year and a half of physical therapy, both pre and post-op. And now that I'm out of physical therapy, my leg is almost a hundred percent in terms of strength and I have a hundred percent range of motion returned. So I'm able to participate in all of the activities I was able to participate in prior to the accident — which was very obviously a great outcome.
About Nicholas's care path — staged multi-ligament reconstruction
Multi-ligament knee injuries (two or more of the four major knee ligaments — ACL, PCL, MCL, posterolateral corner) are complex injuries usually caused by high-energy events. They require careful staging: doing everything in one operation can produce post-op stiffness so severe that the knee never recovers function. Dr. Strickland's approach for Nicholas — repair the displaced meniscus first to restore range of motion, then come back to reconstruct the ACL once the knee was moving — is the standard sequence for the highest-risk-for-stiffness patients. More on multi-ligament knee injuries →
For ACL reconstruction details and graft selection, see ACL tear surgery. For meniscal repair (preferred over meniscectomy when the tear pattern allows), see meniscal tear.
Read more patient stories
Nicholas's story is one of many. Hear from more of Dr. Strickland's patients in their own words about how they got back to the lives they love.
