Meet Walter Schoenfeld A twist on the 15th hole
The tournament was nearly finished and Walter Schoenfeld was having a great game. He stepped onto the green at the 15th hole, thinking eagle, and carefully sized up the distance from where his ball had landed in relation to the hole. He took out his putter, tapped the small white Titleist and twisted back around.
“Something was immediately wrong,” he said. “I could just feel it.”
That was 2006. By Spring 2007, he could hardly walk. He and his wife had traveled to India for a vacation, and Schoenfeld, the former chairman of Vans Shoes, was in terrible pain. “Couldn’t walk a block.”
The “something wrong” on the golf course some two and a half years earlier had continually progressed to the point where he was nearly debilitated. He had tried cortisone shots and even cortisone pills, but they had only brought temporary relief before and as 2007 rolled into 2008, the cortisone was doing nothing to relieve his near constant pain. Doctors had diagnosed bone-on-bone; he would get no relief from medication.
Though he lives in Seattle, Walter and his wife were frequent visitors to Southern California, especially since he had sold his shoe empire. One night, at dinner with Kirk and Anne Douglas, the subject of hip pain took center stage. Mrs. Douglas, it seemed, had had surgery just two weeks earlier and that night at dinner, she was pain-free and didn’t even require a cane to help her walk.
“Anne suggested I see Dr. Matta,” said Schoenfeld, “and I did. Nobody wants surgery, but when my pain got so bad that I couldn’t even sleep at night, I knew I had to take the surgery step.”
Dr. Joel Matta is an acknowledge pioneer in hip replacement surgery and the co-founder of the Hip and Pelvic Institute at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Matta recommended an anterior approach for Schoenfeld’s hip, an approach that minimizes soft tissue disruption, enhances the accuracy of artificial hip components, minimizes the chance of complications and assists in a faster recovery. The surgery would be performed on the HANA table, an arthroplasty table created by Matta that allows the patient to remain on his back rather than on his side, keeping the skeletal position consistent.
“The anterior approach is the least invasive method of hip replacement surgery,” explained Matta. “Because the table lifts the femur for better accessibility and holds the bone in a position for more accuracy, we can achieve proper alignment and influence overall longevity.”
Walter Schoenfeld entered Saint John’s on October 15, 2008 and stayed for two days. The treatment he received was excellent and he found the overall experience incredible. Everyone was very professional, and it was nothing like he anticipated and worried it might be. “I’ve had tooth aches that hurt more than this surgery,” he said with a laugh.
For the first few days, Schoenfeld convalesced at a hotel on the beach in Santa Monica, near the hospital. Dr. Matta sent him to a physical therapist who helped tremendously, urging Schoenfeld to walk and rebuild his strength.
“And so I walked,” said Schoefeld, 78. “Probably overdid it a bit the first couple of days, walking at least a mile. But since then, I’ve had hardly any pain.”
In 2009, he’s back to walking several miles each day, playing 18 holes of golf, hitting the ball further than he has in years, and swears that his titanium hip is serving him as well as his titanium clubs. A nice twist, indeed.