New knee replicas restore Boardman woman’s mobility

BOARDMAN

It was March 15, and Maureen LaLama was checking one last thing before heading out the door to attend a funeral.

“I was going down to the basement, and the fourth step from the bottom, my left knee just collapsed. My left knee was always my good knee,” said the 54-year-old mother from Boardman.

LaLama could barely walk, let alone swing dance, one of her favorite weekly activities.

“If you saw me walking down the hall, you would either laugh or cry,” she said. “When you can’t walk, you can’t do anything.”

In July, LaLama had a double-knee replacement. Her right knee had been damaged from years of arthritis. Today, she is back working light-duty at ValleyCare Northside Medical Center.

What made the different, said Dr. James Kerrigan, is the technology used in the surgery.

For the past three years, Kerrigan and staff at the Youngstown Orthopaedic Associates have used MRI 3D scans in 120 cases to create replicas of patients’ bad knees.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and at Vindy.com.