Moving Forward and Giving Back
Holly Dreman, a 66-year-old resident of Palm Beach, Florida, wasn’t sure what to expect after hip replacement surgery. She certainly didn’t think she’d walk out of the hospital later that day. Not only did she do exactly that after her right hip was replaced, but she was able to attend a party the following weekend — on her feet.
“Since getting my hip replaced by Dr. Berger, I tell people all the time, ‘Do not live with pain,’” says Dreman. “Get it taken care of soon as possible. You don’t realize it at first, but you started making concessions that you don’t need to make.”
“Most of my patients come back a few after surgery and announce ‘Why did I wait so long? If I knew it was this easy and worked this well, I would have done it years ago.’” says Dr. Berger. He adds, “It is unfortunate that patients wait so long. Some are afraid of surgery. Others think they need too much down time. And some just don’t know about the miracles we perform every day.”
Before meeting Dr. Berger, Dreman did what she now warns people against: She let pain change her life. Throughout her life, she was athletic. Dreman jogged along the streets of New York City and enjoyed playing several rounds of tennis a week. She would hit ski slopes with her husband, David, in Aspen. But 13 years ago, growing pain in her hip led her to slowly cut back on her activities until she stopped playing tennis and skiing altogether.
“My doctor told me I was ready for a hip replacement, but he wouldn’t send me to his own partner,” Dreman recalls. “He insisted I go see Dr. Berger because, as he said, ‘Berger is the real deal.’”
Dr. Berger treats more than 1,400 patients a year in the OR, of which over 70 percent are walking away the same day with a new joint replacement. Engineering and designing his own tools to make this possible, Dr. Berger allows patients to resume their lives as they did before pain held them back.
Dreman remembers being impressed by the minimally invasive approach to her replacement with the instruments and materials Dr. Berger developed himself. She was even more amazed by how much she could do so soon after the surgery. About four months after surgery, she was back on the tennis courts, and two months after that she was skiing again with David in Aspen on a blue slope.
“I’m a walking billboard for Dr. Berger. Actually, I’m a skiing and tennis-playing billboard for him.” She says. “I work out with a trainer as well. I’m moving a lot without pain. I’m not even aware I had surgery on that side. That’s why I am constantly telling people to see Dr. Berger.”
David Dreman also is a patient of Dr. Berger’s, having had a knee replaced three years ago and a hip replacement about 18 months ago. He found, as his wife did, that he was able to return to a full life of activity after pain began to hinder him.
“I’m over 80, and I’m still playing tennis and skiing, thanks to Dr. Berger,” David Dreman says. “I am always recommending him to my friends because he is by far the best orthopedic expert I have ever dealt with.”
Motivated by their experience and out of appreciation for Dr. Berger’s continued efforts to improve on joint replacements and treatment, the Dremans felt moved to make a gift in support of his ongoing innovative research.
“Dr. Berger’s work is the gold standard, and we want his methods and approaches to be available to even more people,” Holly Dreman says about their gift. “We’ve heard from too many friends that their joint replacements haven’t been as successful, and that’s just not right when a doctor like Berger is doing what he’s doing. His work is proven, and we made our gift so it can go even further.”