As elective surgeries resume, out-of-state patients flock to Illinois doctors
“They planned everything around having surgery done and finally alleviating their pain, finally restoring their function. And then for obviously good reasons, we canceled their surgery or postponed their surgery. And it’s just been heartbreaking for them,” said Dr. Richard Berger of Rush Hospital.
Robin Treider and her husband set out Tuesday on a 10-hour drive from their home in Pennsylvania to Oak Brook, where she was set to undergo a long overdue knee replacement surgery just two days after Illinois hospitals resumed elective procedures.
Though Treider said she wasn’t concerned about stepping into a hospital in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it still felt at times like she was riding an “emotional roller coaster.”
“It’s just the normal fears that can pop into your mind of the things that could go wrong,” she said. “And you quickly try to push them away, but they come back.”
Treider is just one of the patients traveling to Illinois to see Dr. Richard Berger of Rush Hospital, one of the first orthopedic surgeons in the Chicago area. While Pennsylvania restarted elective surgeries April 27, Treider said she was willing to wait for Illinois to lift its restrictions because Berger was highly recommended by a friend and she had already been in line for surgery with him.
After postponing surgeries for roughly two months when the coronavirus took hold, Berger said his schedule is now jam-packed with patients eager to go under the knife.
“They planned everything around having surgery done and finally alleviating their pain, finally restoring their function. And then for obviously good reasons, we canceled their surgery or postponed their surgery. And it’s just been heartbreaking for them,” said Berger, who estimated that roughly half of his patients come from outside Illinois.