Philadelphia area hospitals experienced a dramatic increase in the number of hip surgeries performed on children aged nine to fourteen beginning in late November. Some hospitals, who haven't carried out this type of childhood operation in years, have completed over twenty-five in the last two and a half months alone.
The profound increase has been linked to the immensely popular Chase Utley, Phillies' superstar second baseman, and his November 24th hip surgery carried out to ease an injury that followed him throughout the 2008 championship season.
Billy Canapolis, 12, stared at his near life-size poster of Chase Utley hanging proudly from his bedroom wall. On November 23th, the day before Utley's surgery, Canapolis, using a Phillies magic marker, diagrammed the area where the operation would take place. Later that same day the Lionville, PA resident marked his own hip hoping to one day follow in Chase's footsteps.
"My f'n dad told me I could get f'n hip surgery for Christmas just like Chase. It's been really f'n cool. All my f'n friends at school are like, 'you're so f'n lucky,'" said Canapolis, who had the hip procedure on January 11.
Other children having the surgery were not given a choice whether or not to go under the knife. Todd Mercker, 42, father of little leaguer Jeffrey, 11, forced his son into surgery in mid January. Jeffrey admittedly has very little interest in playing or watching baseball.
"If Chase is doing it then maybe this will get my son into the Major Leagues. At the very least it will get my son to appreciate baseball," said Mercker.
"I'm feeling much better now. The doctor said there were some infections. My dad told me we were going to buy video games; I didn't know anything about the surgery," said Jeffrey.
Pediatric surgeons have been put in a very uncomfortable place since November 24th. Being asked to perform surgery on perfectly healthy children can be stressful, even though the recovery time for that age is estimated to be a little more than a month-unlike the 4-6 months for Utley.
"[The children's] hips are just fine and at first I refused to even discuss surgery with the families. Then I began thinking that I could possibly be operating on a future Chase Utley. That would be pretty cool and great for business," said Dr. Simon Toliver M.D., cheif surgeon at Philadelphia County Medical Center.
Insurance companies are also stepping up to aid Delaware Valley children. Unnecessary medical procedures are normally dismissed by bottom line conscience providers faster than ... necessary procedures.
"Many of [the executives] agreed, 'What the hell, it's for the kids,'" said Debbie O'Donnel, CEO of Franklin and Jefferson Health Network, a Broomall health care provider.
Even the great Chase Utley can make surgery ... hip.
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