Stuart Jotham, 32 years old, was the first person in the United Kingdom to ever receive a knee reconstruction surgery using a replacement part from a donor. So, Jotham didn’t waste any time after the surgery and took the opportunity to get down on one knee and propose to his girlfriend.
According to SWNS, Jotham had an accident from riding a motorbike six years ago when he crashed into a car and had him thrown off his bike. He initially thought that he would have to live as an amputee due to the severity of the accident. His knee ligaments as well as bone parts from his femur and fibula were shattered.
Jotham, who also dabbles in martial arts, was immediately taken to surgery to save his leg. Although the reconstruction surgery looked plausible, Dr. James Murray, orthopedic surgeon, said that Jotham had to match with a donor first to receive a half-knee transplant.
The whole process of the reconstruction took at least two years to be completed. After the surgery, he immediately followed up with a plan to propose to his girlfriend, Carrie, with the Aurora Borealis flapping in the background.
Jotham said, “It was my goal to get down on one knee under the Northern Lights and I had been planning it for a year and a half. Getting married was pretty good. I was excited about having operation, but I always knew it was going to be a hard, long journey.
“The latest operation was the important thing and I am hopeful that it will take my knee to a good enough level so that I can carry on doing the things I want to do with a bit more certainty. I want people to know how important it is for people to be donors.”
After the successful round of surgery, Dr. Murray said, “Allografts with donor bone are something we use in orthopedics to fill in bits that are missing but Stuart had lost bone, joint surface and ligaments and what we decided to do was to use a whole knee and cut out the bits that we needed.
“We used half the knee on the tibia, a quarter on the femur and the proximal fibula along with associated ligaments and cartilage. When I contacted the NHS Tissue Bank in Liverpool they said this had never been done before and this was the first.”
Jotham proposed to Carrie in Iceland in November 2015.
