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.
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. Baqai’s hands. Kenneth was willing to go with anything that Dr. Baqai proposed, given the relationship they had built during the previous operation.
Kenneth was told at another clinic that he shouldn´t expect to walk out since he didn´t walk in. That did not affect Dr. Baqai´s ambition at Ascension Illinois in Chicago to get him healed.
For the coming months a lot of perseverance, mental fortitude and willpower was needed — not only for physical hurdles/challenges but also mental ones.
Kenneth had gone from an active man to being wheelchair bound. For him the only way was up — up from the wheelchair. His son 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 tremendous healing from the start. But because the graft was placed over the knee joint, Dr. Baqai feared that Kenneth might develop a contracture, limiting his ability to walk. However, the fish skin graft not only healed the wound at unexpected speed, it also turned out to be more elastic/extendable than Dr. Baqai expected.
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. Now his son’s big day was coming up: Fernando was getting married.
Kenneth made it one of his first recovery milestones to be able to stand at his son’s wedding, which he did
Now that Kenneth is out of the wheelchair, he has set another ambitious target. This time it is a moving target, namely his six year 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 when it comes to big challenges.
