White Rock man walking for first time in two years thanks to 3D printer

WHITE ROCK (NEWS 1130) – A White Rock man is doing something this weekend he never thought he’d do: walk hand-in-hand with his young grandson.

“It’s my grandson’s 3rd birthday. He’s in Seattle and I’m going down there and he’s gonna walk me around the backyard. He’s never known me but in a wheelchair,” says John Jefferson. “So it’s gonna be pretty exciting.”

Two years ago while riding his motorcycle in Washington state Jefferson hit a deer that had jumped out in front of the road, sending his body into a guard rail and blowing out his right talus bone. It left him in a wheelchair, facing the amputation of this right foot.

John Jefferson riding a motorcycle before an accident two years ago that left in him in a wheelchair, facing amputation. (Image courtesy John Jefferson)

 

“I’d never heard of the word talus bone in my life,” Jefferson thinks back.

Located in the ankle, the small bone sits between the heel bone and the two bones of the lower leg, and is crucial for walking. While Jefferson’s talus bone got reinserted after he was airlifted to hospital, it got horribly infected over 18 months and in August 2018 was removed at St. Paul’s Hospital.

“I didn’t know if I would ever walk again. You know, you kept a brave face for everybody but every night you go in bed and wonder ‘will I ever walk again?'” says Jefferson. “We were kind of at a loss of what to do. The main option was amputation. I didn’t like that, so I went online.”

That’s where Jefferson learned about experimental 3D talus bone printing at Duke University. He told his doctor, Dr. Alastair Younger, a professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at St. Paul’s Hospital and his Footbridge Foot & Ankle Clinic, who got the ball rolling to get Jefferson on his feet again.

After some roadblocks along the way — including Health Canada’s initial refusal to fund the procedure — a new talus bone got made.

“They take a picture, a CAT scan, and they X-ray my other ankle, the healthy one and they reverse it and they send it to these people. They put it on their machine. It takes apparently 6 weeks to make this bone,” Jefferson says. “They actually make three of them: large, medium, small, and they put in the one that fits the best.”

In May, a titanium and cobalt 3D printed talus got put into Jefferson’s ankle and he’s walking again.

“It changed my life so much,” says Jefferson. “It’s gonna take a while to get my strength back, that’s the worst part. I’ve been sitting in a wheelchair for two years so I’m walking everyday, I’m going to physiotherapy.”

Jefferson’s believed to the first person in western Canada — if not all of Canada — to get a 3D talus bone inserted and he hopes it paves the way for others who get hurt, to have the life-changing option.

“I just want to shout it to the rooftops to make people aware that there is options,” Jefferson adds. “The whole thing with me in a wheelchair for two years and the infection, probably nobody else is gonna go through that.”

As Jefferson slowly gets his life, independence, and the use of his legs back, there’s one question many ask him: Will he hop back on a motorcycle?

“Yes, [me and my wife] will be back on motorcycle’s hopefully once I get strong enough, probably next year,” is his answer.

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