Out-of-State Patients Come to Illinois as Elective Surgeries Resume
Setting out on a 10-hour drive from their home in Pennsylvania to Oak Brook, Robin Treider and her husband were relieved that Robin would finally have a knee replacement surgery. The long-overdue surgery was scheduled just two days after Illinois allowed hospitals to resume elective procedures.
Although Treider wasn’t worried about going into a hospital during the COVID-19 crisis, she sometimes felt like she was on an “emotional roller coaster.”
Setting out on a 10-hour drive from their home in Pennsylvania to Oak Brook, Robin Treider and her husband were relieved that Robin would finally have a knee replacement surgery. The long-overdue surgery was scheduled just two days after Illinois allowed hospitals to resume elective procedures.
Although Treider wasn’t worried about going into a hospital during the COVID-19 crisis, she sometimes felt like she was on an “emotional roller coaster.”
“It was just the normal fear that can come into your mind about the things that could go wrong,” she said. “And you immediately try to push them away, but they always come back.”
Treider is only one of the many patients coming to Illinois to visit Rush Hospital orthopedic surgeon Dr. Richard Berger, one of the first in the Chicago metropolitan area. Although Pennsylvania reauthorized elective surgeries on April 27, Treider was inclined to wait for Illinois to end its restrictions. This is because Dr. Berger came highly recommended by a friend and Treider had already set an appointment for knee surgery with him.