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LAWRENCE • BUSINESS
| Thursday, July 14, 2011
L AWRENCE J OURNAL -WORLD
Surgery
have patients take, and some recommend TED hose and others don’t. The methods used to control pain also differ among hospitals and doctors.
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joint, moving the muscles aside and removing the damaged bone and cartilage. He dislocated my leg during the procedure. Then, he fit the remaining bone with a prosthesis. There’s great debate among orthopedic surgeons about the best implants to use. Some are made of ceramic and others of metal. Some say ceramic parts last longer and others say they don’t. Some say the metal ones release ions into a patient’s body and others deny it. There’s even debate about the best technique to do surgery and the use of cement. Dr. Richard Wendt, of OrthoKansas in Lawrence, said today’s implants typically last 15 to 20 years. He doesn’t anticipate any big advances in the technology being used. He said the outcomes for joint replacements are better today because: ● Orthopedic doctors are subspecializing in one or two joints instead of all of them. For example, Wendt specializes in knees and hips, while his partner, Dr. Doug Stull, specializes in shoulders. So, doctors are getting better at what they do and are doing more surgeries in their specialty. “It makes patient care better — no question,” Wendt said. “Studies have shown over and over again: The more volume, the better the results.” ● The materials — plastic, metal and ceramic — used in the implants are better. ● The implants are fitting better because more sizes are available. Wendt advises patients to
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Artificial hip
Artificial knee
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
DR. DOUGLAS STULL, an orthopedic surgeon at OrthoKansas, displays some of the hardware used for a hip replacement during an interview June 7 at his Lawrence office.
For hip and knee replacements, the biggest risk is infection. Other major risks include anesthetic complications, blood clots and blood loss requiring a transfusion. For hip replacements, there’s an added risk of dislocation and a change in leg length. ●●●
BRITT WAITS for ocupational therapist Kristen Phenicie on May 20 at KU Hospital. Around her left wrist is a bracelet identifying her as a “fall risk” to alert hospital personnel. trust their doctor when it comes to picking the implants. “Let the doctor put in what he’s comfortable putting in and don’t ask about some-
thing that he’s never used,” he said. For me, I trusted Hendricks, his methods and his decision to put in a ceramic implant.
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE
Notable ● Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers Wednesday the Fed is ready to act if the economy gets weaker. He warned them that allowing the nation to default on its debt would send “shock waves through the entire financial system.” Underscoring how fragile the economy remains two years after the Great Recession, Bernanke laid out three new steps the Fed could take, including a fresh round of government bond purchases designed to stimulate economic growth. “We have to keep all the options on the table. We don’t know where the economy is going to go,” Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee. The Fed chairman stopped short of promising anything, but Wall Street appeared comforted that the central bank was poised to act. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 150 points during his testimony to Congress, and closed up 45.
Wednesday’s markets Dow Industrials +44.73, 12,491.61 Nasdaq +15.01, 2,796.92 S&P 500 +4.08, 1,317.72 30-Year Treasury —0.01, 4.18% Corn (Chicago) +21.75 cents, $6.80 Soybeans (Chicago) +21.5 cents, $13.80 Wheat (Kansas City) +27.25 cents, $7.41 Oil (New York) +62 cents, $98.05 DILBERT
Artificial shoulder
Obama to GOP: ‘Don’t call my bluff’ By David Espo and Andrew Taylor Associated Press Writers
W A S H I N G T O N — President Barack Obama bluntly told Republican congressional leaders Wednesday they must compromise quickly if the government is to avoid an unprecedented default, adding, “Don’t call my bluff” by passing a short-term debt limit increase he has threatened to veto. The presidential warning, directed at House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., marked an acrimonious end to a two-hour negotiating session at the White House that produced no evident progress toward a compromise. Another round of talks is set for today. With a threatened default less than three weeks away, Moody’s Investors Service announced it was reviewing the U.S. bond rating for a possible downgrade, and the Treasury said the annual def icit was on a pace to exceed $1 trillion for the third year in a row. With the negotiations at a seeming standstill, Republicans drew a warning of a different sort, from an unlikely source — the party’s Senate leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. In an interview with radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham, McConnell warned fellow conservatives that failure to raise the debt limit would probably ensure Obama’s reelection in 2012. Republicans, many of them elected with the support of tea party activists in 2010, are demanding deep spending cuts as the price for allowing
a debt limit increase to pass. But negotiations have bogged down over Obama’s demand for tax increases that GOP lawmakers say they won’t accept. McConnell predicted that if Congress fails to act, Obama will argue “that Republicans are making the economy worse and try to convince the public, maybe with some merit, if people start not getting their Social Security checks and military families start getting letters saying their service people overseas don’t get paid.” “You know, it’s an argument he has a good chance of winning, and all of a sudden we (Republicans) have coownership of a bad economy,” McConnell said. “That is a very bad positioning going into an election.” McConnell said his first choice was to reach a good compromise with Obama. Short of that, “my second obligation is to my party ... to prevent them from being sucked into a horrible position politically that would allow the president probably to get re-elected because we didn’t handle this difficult situation correctly.” With bipartisan talks scheduled to resume today, two Democratic off icials quoted Obama as telling Republicans, “Enough is enough. We have to be willing to compromise. It shouldn’t be about positioning and politics, and I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Talking with reporters at the Capitol after he left the White House, Cantor said the president had backed away from spending cuts agreed to earlier because of pressure from Democrats in Congress.
by Scott Adams
For hip and knee replacements, the biggest risk is infection. It’s because the artificial parts don’t have their own blood supply, as the natural parts do. So, if bacteria get on the parts, they can live there. Antibiotics won’t work because there’s no blood supply to get them to the joint. If the joints become infected, doctors have to remove the parts and replace them in a separate surgery, after the infection has cleared up. “It’s at least two more surgeries,” Hendricks said. “It’s
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No bill has been submitted yet in the recent legal challenge. “As SRS offices are being closed and vital services that people depend on are being decimated in the name of fiscal responsibility, it is appalling to me that Gov. Brownback hires a lucrative law firm to defend his extreme social agenda,” Hensley said. Brownback’s spokeswoman Sherienne Jones-Sontag said the decision to hire Foulston Siefkin was Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s, who is also a Republican. “It is within the discretion of the attorney general to staff the obligations of that
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of people here who step up and say, ‘Let me help you.’” Bike and Build has been cycling from coast to coast since 2003 and has contributed more than $2.78 million to housing groups to fund projects, especially those for young adults ages 18 to 25. Lawrence Habitat for Humanity has been a part of the Bike and Build tour since 2006, when the group added a Kansas route. “We were lucky enough to receive their amazing service, and since then we have benefited from the organization,” said Tracie Howell, Lawrence Habitat for
usually fixable, but it’s a tough fix.” Other major risks include anesthetic complications, blood clots and blood loss requiring a transfusion. For hip replacements, there’s an added risk of dislocation and a change in leg length. Minor risks for both replacements include nausea, constipation, persistent pain or stiffness, and nerve injury. Surgeons also vary on their methods of preventing these risks from happening. For example, one risk is blood clots. Doctors vary on the type of medications they
My surgery took about an hour. I woke up about 1:15 p.m., and soon my family came to greet me. I asked for water, warm blankets and lip balm. I wasn’t nauseated. I hardly felt any pain because a peripheral nerve catheter pushed a numbing solution into the major nerve near my hip. Once I was in my room, nurses put massage devices on my feet to assist with blood flow and circulation. These little air pumps felt so good I wanted to take them home. After my family left, I mostly slept except for when nurses were giving me pills, checking my vitals or taking blood. At 10 a.m. the next day, I had physical therapy and made it down the hallway on the first trip with a walker. An hour later, I had occupational therapy, where I learned to put on my socks and shoes without bending past my waist. When you have a hip replacement, you can’t bend more than 90 degrees for about six weeks because, if you do, you can dislocate the hip. That afternoon, the day after surgery, I walked a loop around the orthopedic area with a walker, the urinary catheter was removed, and IV fluid was stopped. I felt like I was well on my way to recovery. Tomorrow: The recovery. — Health reporter Karrey Britt can be reached at 832-7190. Read her reporting at WellCommons.com, and follow her at Twitter.com.
office in the manner judged to be in the best interests of Kansas. “Gov. Brownback respects the constitutional distinctions between his office and the office of the attorney general and accepts the staffing decisions of the attorney general in this matter,” she said. The attorney general’s off ice is responsible for defending state laws but does hire outside help occasionally, usually for special expertise, as is the case with water litigation, or if there is a conflict of interest. Schmidt’s office did not return a phone call and email asking why the office hired an outside firm in the Planned Parenthood case. Hensley also noted that the Foulston law firm represents the billionaire Koch brothers, who are the owners of Wichita-based Koch Industries,
involved in numerous rightwing causes and are some of Brownback’s largest campaign contributors. The state also faces another federal lawsuit in which abortion clinics have challenged new regulations. The attorney general’s office says it expects to hire an outside firm in that case, too. Brownback supported and signed into law both the new regulations on abortion clinics and diverting $334,000 in federal family planning funds away from Planned Parenthood. Even though the family planning funds cannot be used for abortions, abortion opponents say those funds subsidize abortions. Planned Parenthood has denied that allegation.
Humanity executive director. Howell said Lawrence offers “amazing hospitality, which includes a three-night stay at the Spring Hill Suites, food donated by Johnny’s, Backdoor Bakery, Pieroguys Pierogies, The Daughters of Isabella, Local Burger, First Southern Baptist Church and St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church. Mark Brooks, Lawrence Habitat for Humanity construction manager, said he is thankful to the entire community for their contributions, but the hotel is a “huge deal.” “It gives them a room, shower and a pool,” Brooks said. “All amenities they need after traveling hundreds of miles on a bicycle.” The riders appreciate the hospitality. “Most of the time we sleep
on the floor of a church in our sleeping bags, and a church only has so many showers. So you are either taking a cold shower, washing off with a hose or taking a sponge bath,” said Bike and Build rider Ellen Carpenter from Houghton, Mich. “The hotel is an upgrade from where we usually stay.” Lawrence is the halfway point in the 4,025-mile trip for the crew as they journey from Providence, R.I., to San Francisco. “If you get sick on the way, they don’t stop for you,” Carpenter said. “I’ve been sick before, and so have some of the other riders. It happens, but the important thing is that we ride and build as a team.”
— Statehouse reporter Scott Rothschild can be reached at 785-423-0668.
— Reporting intern Dustin Porter can be reached at 832-7261.
Outside judge to hear request to withdraw plea A judge from outside of Douglas County will handle a murder defendant’s request to withdraw his voluntary manslaughter plea in connection with the 2006 death of a Lawrence hip-hop artist. Judge Philip L. Sieve, who has senior status and was previously a chief judge in Wyandotte County, will conduct a hearing on Monday in Douglas County District Court for Major C. Edwards Jr., 31, of Lawrence, a state judicial branch spokesman said. Edwards pleaded guilty in March 2010 to voluntary
manslaughter in connection with the October 2006 shooting of Anthony “Clacc” Vital, whose body was found west of Lawrence. Edwards claims he was not aware he was pleading guilty to intentionally killing someone. He was the state’s key witness in a trial earlier this year of co-defendant Durrell Jones, 24, of Kansas City, Kan. Edwards testified he saw Jones shoot Vital that night to collect on a drug debt — a claim Jones’ defense attorney disputes. Edwards also said he felt remorse for leading Jones
to Vital. A jury deadlocked, and Jones faces a retrial in August. Edwards now alleges he was misled into entering a plea in the case, but prosecutors disagree. Defense attorney Napoleon Crews said Chief District Judge Robert Fairchild likely asked Sieve to handle the hearing because Fairchild accepted the guilty plea when Edwards was represented by Kay Huff, who has since been appointed a Douglas County judge. “It’s Judge Fairchild’s attempt to be as fair as possible to Major Edwards,” Crews said.