Elite Care for All
Coach Mark Stoops has led the University of Kentucky football team since 2012. He’s just about as active on the sidelines as the players on the field. So when his knee pain, which he’d been experiencing for years, made that level of activity impossible, he decided to undergo knee replacement surgery at UK HealthCare Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine. It’s a choice that proved vital for his job as well as his quality of life.
Coach Stoops had dealt with knee pain and related issues since his college days playing football for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Since college, he had undergone multiple knee surgeries to correct those issues, but continued to experience severe pain and discomfort in his adult life and throughout his coaching career.
“Prior to the surgery, my knee was a little bow legged,” said Coach Stoops. “I had over-corrected medial collateral and no ACL, so my knee was all bent up.”
Dr. Jeff Selby, an orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in knee replacements, performed Coach Stoops’ surgery in 2015. Recovery from knee replacement surgery can be challenging--while most can return to normal life after six weeks, some full recoveries take up to six months to completely recover. For patients like Coach Stoops, though, the results are worth the wait.
While Coach Stoops and other members of the University of Kentucky Football family have benefited from the expertise of UK Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine, he’s the first to recognize that this quality of care is for everyone in the Big Blue Nation, not just for elite athletes.
