Dan Pohly

Trauma results in life-saving orthopedic surgeries and a life-long friendship

Transcription

Dan: Two things my wife said not to do. One is to run a chainsaw when she is not at home. And the other is to go on the roof. I went on the roof, but I didn't have my chainsaw running, so I thought I was ok.

I carried the wooden ladder up onto the second level and put it up to the next roof. Carry my blower up. As I'm climbing up onto the second roof, the legs of the wooden ladder came out. I fall backwards, I hit the first roof, bounce, came down, hit my sidewalk and part of my flower bed, and ended up rolling over to here.

So this is where I lay wondering what I'm going to do. Look at myself, and started calling for help. Eventually did get up on my left knee, and I managed with pushing with my elbow to get up onto my right knee. And when I got there I fell over again. Later I find out both bones in both arms and my hip that was broken.

We got down and taken down to meet the doctor for surgery. It was Dr. Derek Klaus, and I can't say enough about Dr. Derek Klaus. He had this ability to explain my injuries to me in a way that even I could understand.

Dr. Klaus: All I knew about him at the time is that he had fallen two stories off a roof, and broken both of his wrists and his hip. Not all wrist breaks need fixed, but one was worse than the other so we just talked about if we fixed just one side, it will improve his alignment and function a little quicker. The other side I didn't think it was worth the risk to put him through. I thought we could treat him with a cast. The full hip replacement is typically an excellent option for people like himself: very active, young. And we had a very frank discussion about that. Right after that I got on the phone, called Dr. Pfefferle, that really is his area of expertise, and it was a Saturday morning, he was not on call.

Dr. Pfefferle: When my colleagues called me and asked for help for certain things, I put down what we were doing, and gone in to help the patient. Given the nature of Dan's fracture, we wanted to get him up and walking as soon as possible. And the thought to be able to do two surgeries under one anesthesia and not having to go back and forth through multiple surgeries was very attractive, especially for a very young, healthy guy we could get him up and walking.

Dan: I had surgery on Saturday. They put me up walking on Sunday, and the therapist said can you walk to the door, and I said, can I keep going? He says yeah if you want. So I walked down there and took about a 45 minute walk. This is my full time job, I got to get better.

At Hartville Hardware, my daughter and I have put things online. So we sell things online for the business. We've built a new warehouse actually as the business has grown and done well. I've been blessed by just the friendships there. And people that have reached out.

Dr. Pfefferle: Dan has done exceptional from day one. The day of surgery, the nurses were holding him back he was doing loops in the nurses station walking around. I think that it contributes to Dan's personality and nothing is going to slow him down. He has done phenomenal.

Dan: The pieces parts were put in proper so I could get going and without pain as I told you. No pain meds at all after the surgery, it went so well.

Dr. Klaus: He's so cheerful and so happy that he has such a big smile on his face every time he came in. I looked forward to seeing him. Half the time we talked for 20 minutes and then we said, oh that's right, let's look at your wrist, let's look at the x-rays. Because it was like catching up.

Dan: They're my doctors, but they are my friends. And I have just appreciated every moment I've had with them.