If strength, perseverance and determination were measured by the size of the person, Carol Davis would break the mold. Carol Davis is a mother of twelve and a recepient of the OPRA Implant System.

Following her win over cancer,  she developed MRSA (bacterial infection) after a bug bite became infected.  The development of MRSA led to the amputation of her leg 6 years ago.  Carol quickly adapted to life as an above-knee amputee. She accepted that if she wanted to enjoy her time with grandchildren, she had to make it all work. However, as Carol continued to increase her activity level, she realized that the skin on her residual limb could not tolerate the shear forces experienced when wearing a socket for longer periods of time. This left her searching for alternate solutions.

Discovering Osseointegration

Dr. Richard O’Donnell, her orthopaedic oncologist,  introduced her to the technique of osseointegration used to anchor limb prosthetics directly to the bone.  A little after six years, Dr. O’Donnell founded the international Center for Osseointegration, Research, Education and Surgery (iCORES) and Carol Davis became patient #2 to receive the OPRA System for Transfemoral at the institute.

On the other side of her osseointegration surgeries and rehabilitation protocols, Carol became more active than she had ever been before.She embraced a more active lifestyle reaching over 10,000 steps a day. However, she realized that she could not match the step length of her sound side with her OPRA side no matter how carefully she tried to walk.  The clinical team identified that she would need a hip replacement on the side of her amputation. Carol once again demonstrated determination and perserverance as she circled her surgical wagons and collectively identified that although it had not been done before,  a hip replacement was possible.

“The best thing of all is I still can wake up, put my leg on and do whatever I want without having to carefully plan out my day.  Oh and watch out once my hip is completely healed!”

Today Carol is in the later stages of her rehabilitation for her hip replacement.  She proudly ambulates over 4,000 steps a day on level surfaces independently.  She says “the best thing of all is I still can wake up, put my leg on and do whatever I want without having to carefully plan out my day.  Oh and watch out once my hip is completely healed!”

We will Carol.  We will be watching with admiration and joy!!