where discovery creates hope

One set of knee surgeries is daunting enough.

Chance Murphy, 28, faced a second just 10 years after the first. This time, the procedures offered the possibility of correcting the birth defect causing pain and loss of mobility.

Even better, Dr. Kyle Martin would employ a novel, less invasive technique to lessen recovery time.

And best of all, Chance, of Clearwater, wouldn’t have to venture to the Twin Cities for the repair —Dr. Martin lives and works in nearby St. Cloud.

Still, it took something even more compelling to convince Chance to undergo a procedure called arthroscopic trochleoplasty:

The possibility of being able to one day match his one-year-old boy stride for stride.

“His name is Hudson Michael Murphy,” Chance says proudly. “He means everything to me.”

Dr. Martin, one of the first to perform the innovative surgery in this country, could probably have practiced anywhere.

But the orthopedic surgeon fell in love with the vision and mission of CentraCare M Physicians Orthopedics in St. Cloud.

CentraCare not only built a state-of-the-art health care facility there, but also partners with the University of Minnesota to open a new Medical School campus.

That affiliation—where Dr. Martin is part of a world-class team as a researcher and an assistant professor—sealed the deal for the Winnipeg native.

He says: “It’s really a big family approach where you can bounce ideas off of a whole group of other physicians and surgeons.”

Dr. Martin diagnosed Chance with bilateral trochlear dysplasia.

It’s a relatively rare condition, which is why, with Chance’s first surgery, it might’ve been overlooked.

Chance, Dr. Martin says, lacked the normal groove in his thighbones that would keep his kneecaps in place.

Even from his early days on the playground, Chance recalls his kneecaps suddenly sliding off to the side and the pain stopping him in his tracks.

“It limited me on a lot of things growing up,” he says.

Chance had those first surgeries in his teens, procedures that tightened his tissues in hopes that they’d help keep his kneecaps in place.

That worked for a while. Chance, in fact, went on to realize a childhood dream: Working on a tank crew in the U.S. Army.

In time, however, the effectiveness of the surgeries diminished as did his career options.

And then came that little boy.

Chance says: “If you’re having a bad day, his smile definitely gives you something to be happy about.”

Dr. Martin learned how to do an arthroscopic trochleoplasty in Europe where it’s much more common.

Instead of a huge incision, Dr. Martin makes just four little poke-holes.

Through those openings, he’s able to insert a camera as well as the surgical tools to create those missing grooves.

Dr. Martin says: “The advantages for most patients, besides smaller scars, is a quicker recovery, less pain.”

A few years down the road, Chance’s knees are doing so well he works as a security officer at the Monticello nuclear plant – a position that required he pass a running test.

Now, just to stay in shape, he runs one mile a day on his way to five – and even makes headway on a bucket list of hiking each of Minnesota’s parks.

And then there’s Hudson. Maybe, Chance says, he can teach him a game he once could only dream of playing: baseball.

He says: “Without the surgery, I’d have felt guilty that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with him.”

Kyle Martin, MD, discusses how his training abroad shaped the way he cares for patients.