Grant Pennington, Left Knee Tibial Fracture Testimonial - Florida Orthopaedic Institute

Описание: Grant: (00:00) My name is Grant Pennington. I train and show hunter/jumper horses. We train horses to compete competitively, show jumping, whether they’re jumpers or hunters. I teach clients. I teach the horses how to do it. When I was a child growing up, my mom used to take us on family vacations to Georgia. We would trail ride and she would hold me when I was a baby. Then from there, I started taking lessons and riding ponies. It developed into a passion and taking lessons all the time. From there, it developed into really chasing points and trying to be the best I could be. That rolled into being an assistant trainer. That rolled into turning professional. That rolled into turning it into a business. It went from hobby, lifestyle, business, now everything.(01:00) The day of the injury, it was a normal day training the horse. It was young, had jumped a few jumps. The horse was a little fresh, cantered a jump. It landed, started bucking, spun around, took off the other direction. I flew forward and landed on my left leg. It shattered the head of my tibia in 13 places. At the time, it felt career-ending. I was taken to Pasco Regional Medical Center, I believe. They wanted to ship in the equipment to do the surgery. At that point, my mom made the wise decision to have me immediately sent to Tampa General for Florida Orthopaedic Institute to work on me with Dr. Infante. Everyone was very, very nervous. All the doctors were crowded around the door, looking at the X-rays. The nurses were coming in one after the other saying I probably would never (02:00) walk again. They’ve never seen something so severe. “One-of-a-kind kind of injury,” they kept saying. Infante was always very calm, very reassuring. Never said anything negative. It was never, “You are not going to achieve something.” It was never said like that.I’m very active; sitting around is not an option for me. My recovery time of being confined to a couch was difficult. Being told I might not walk again was definitely not something that I was going to settle for. So, every day, sitting on the couch, I was moving my ankle, moving my foot, bending my knee to the certain degree that Dr. Infante would register it to every few months. Every few months, the degree of mobility would increase. I wasn’t going to settle for laying there. That was not an option. Learning to walk again was hard. Putting weight on your leg for the first time in four months (03:00) was a weird feeling. It took some time to regain that. I did start riding about four months after the surgery, walking, getting on there, standing up a little bit so it wasn’t so much pressure on the leg, but I was definitely ready to be back. I wasn’t going to let the surgery and the rehab get in the way. I was going to horse shows on crutches. I was riding a dirt bike with my leg propped up at the horse show. I was teaching people out of a golf cart on crutches for months. I did not stop my day-to-day life because of it. I have a very strong mentality, I always have. I’m not a weak person by any means. I think I really, truly learned who I was through this process, of how mentally strong I could be and how determined I could be. Because I feel if someone believed what they were told, I think the outcome would have been different. For somebody to be told, “No,” and then believe it, they might (04:00) not get up and walk. They might not work so hard but lay on a couch. They might just lay back, pop a couple of pills, and believe it.I think Dr. Infante played a huge role of staying calm and prescribing the right mentality. He was very respectful of feelings. He never looked upset. He never said anything along the lines of, “You cannot.” It was never like that. So, having him and the Florida Orthopaedic Institute behind it, together for me, it was great. I would definitely recommend Florida Orthopaedic Institute and having the surgery. Whatever they tell you, you need to do, you need to do it. Going through all the recovery, it might be painful, but you have to work through the pain. You have to put it behind you and go. Be determined to get where you have to get. Not because you need to, you have to.
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