When Pam Campana was born, it was soon clear that something was unusual with her knees: her kneecaps kept slipping out of place because of a condition called patellar instability. The problem interfered with her mobility, leading to her undergoing reconstructive surgery when she was 15 years old.
Although that surgery was successful, knee pain resurfaced in her 40s. White Plains Hospital Orthopedic Surgeon and Sports Medicine Specialist Dr. Rick Weinstein provided gel injections to ease her discomfort, and she was able to continue teaching Pilates, water aerobics, and other fitness classes well into her 60s.
But a series of complex medical challenges over the past few years have made the Stamford, CT resident a repeat patient at White Plains Hospital. From hand surgery to a knee replacement—and others in between—she has relied on the Hospital and its physicians’ expertise to help her feel her best.
A condition impacting her right hand led Campana to seek care at White Plains Hospital once again in 2023, where Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Nathan Douglass determined that she had bone chips in her wrist. Minimally invasive surgery to remove them, and the transference of a tendon from her middle finger to the injured one, were successful.
Impressed, Campana returned to the Hospital that same year to correct a spinal issue. “I would drag my left leg if I stood for more than 60 seconds. I also felt a lot of pain and burning in my glutes,” she recalls. Interventional Pain Management physician Dr. Syed Rahman gave her injections in her back to ease the symptoms, but the discomfort persisted.
Dr. Rahman referred Campana to White Plains Hospital’s Chief of Orthopedic Surgery and Spine Surgery Dr. Andrew Casden, who pinpointed a compressed nerve as the cause; he performed spinal fusion surgery, which relieved the pressure.
A Knee Surgery Delayed by a Heart Problem
During her recovery from that surgery, doctors discovered an irregular heartbeat that needed to be addressed before Campana could undergo her long-awaited knee replacement. After meeting with Cardiologist and Director of Echocardiography Dr. Douglas Hart and Cardiac Electrophysiologist and Director of Cardiogenetics Dr. Marc Waase, she received a dual-chamber leadless pacemaker in an outpatient procedure, allowing her full range of shoulder motion without restrictions.
Then, she shares, “I had been living with the pain, getting cortisone shots and also gel shots to lubricate the knees and reduce inflammation. But my right knee swelled up, and it would not go down. It got so bad I couldn’t even step down from a curb.”
Fortunately, White Plains Hospital once again had the answer: Dr. Isaac Livshetz, an Orthopedic Surgeon who specializes in hip and knee surgery.
“There was no cartilage left in her knee because it was worn away from arthritis,” he says. “It was completely bone on bone, and they would rub together whenever she moved her knee. She also had a metal staple left in her knee from the procedure she’d had as a child.
“The operation was basically a resurfacing of the knee joint,” Dr. Livshetz adds. During the hour-long procedure, he shaved away the arthritic portion of Campana’s knee and then capped off the ends of the two bones—the femur in the upper leg and the tibia, located in the lower leg—with metal implants. He also placed a type of plastic called polyethylene between the implants, which creates the knee’s new bearing surface.
Campana was pleased that she went home the same day.
Lasting Loyalty
Although she moved from Westchester to Stamford years ago, Campana (now 68) remains convinced that White Plains Hospital is the place to go for high-quality care. She plans to undergo a second knee replacement with Dr. Livshetz in the coming months. But first, she wants to be active and present when her second grandchild is born later this year.
“I have been the grandmother in the bed, and everyone has had to come to see me,” she says. “This time, I’m not going to be in bed.”
Need a physician? Visit wphpa.org or call 914-849-MyMD (6963).