Patient Testimonials

Dr. Ridley is a smart and caring Orthopedic Surgeon. He knows his stuff. I’ll be using him for my shoulder replacement next year. I am very pleased with his intelligence and bedside manner.

Staying healthy and active in winter is hard enough. When you add COVID on top of that, it seems impossible! Feeling cooped up, I decided to meet a friend to play some tennis at an indoor court. Just as we were finishing up, I felt my ankle roll. Originally, I thought I could walk it off, but after taking 4 steps, I knew the pain I was feeling wasn’t going to go away on its own. It was something not even ice and elevation could fix. That’s when I contacted TCO to start my healing process.

I met with Dr. William Engasser and his team, and they were so kind and caring. We discussed my injury, and it was determined I had sustained a Lisfranc injury of the foot. Dr. Engasser and his team went through the step-by-step process of how my recovery would go and made me feel safe in their hands.

Following my surgery, Dr. Engasser told me the procedure went even better than he had hoped! I will be starting the physical therapy process soon, but I am more than confident with the TCO team behind me. I know am in great hands! Thank you so much TCO.

What I thought was just an ankle sprain, turned into a life threatening emergency. After the swelling went down on my foot, I thought everything was good. Turns out, I had broken my foot and was unaware the bone had become infected. As the infection became worse, I started to feel extremely sick and ended up in the emergency room. Thanks to TCO’s Dr. TJ Ridley, they found the issue and immediately prepped me for surgery. I remember Dr. Ridley looking at the MRI and saying, “This surgery has gone from trying to save your foot, to saving your life.”

Due to the severe infection, I needed a below the knee amputation. It was a shock, but considering the alternative, there was nothing else to do. I spent 6 days in the hospital, and it took two surgeries to make sure I was clear of the infection. Dr. Ridley assured me I would be up and walking before too long, and after a few weeks of recovery at home, I was able to get the staples removed. Things were progressing nicely and Dr. Ridley referred me to some amazing people who fitted for my prosthetic leg.

By the time I had a follow up appointment with Dr. Ridley, I was able to walk into his office without aid of crutches or a cane. My goal was to be able to walk on my own by Christmas and I’m proud to say I accomplished just that. I have now finished up my physical therapy, and my life is pretty much back to normal. Dr. Ridley and his staff were excellent to work with, always available to answer any questions I had, and helped me maintain a positive attitude, which I believe helped my recovery. I can’t say thank you enough. You literally saved my life.

Watch Bill’s Story Here: https://streamable.com/getje6

My injury happened at the start of summer, by falling on some slippery grass. I was brought by ambulance to Fairview Ridges Hospital. Along with my spirit being shattered, my ankle was too. Dr. Szalapski put me back together with 10 screws and a plate. He is an amazing doctor with great bedside manner. I love his sense of humor. He has great supporting staff and I received wonderful care from everybody at TCO. If I ever need that specialty again, I would not hesitate to go back to Dr. Szalapski and his staff.

This review will be somewhat different from others as my history with Dr. Cammack goes back nearly 15 years and 4 surgeries, with a 5th planned. I met Dr. Cammack after a suicide attempt in February of 2005, which resulted in significant injuries; including a pelvis broken in 3 places, 3 vertebra in my back fractured, and both heels were completely smashed, along with quite a bit of internal bleeding. Due to my injuries, Dr. Cammack was assigned to me to oversee my case. I liked him straight away, he reminds me of Doogie Howser – a mix of extreme intelligence and genuine ‘aw shucks’ personality. He went through my injuries and talked about the surgeries I would need to be fixed and what to expect.

TCO is a large practice with doctors, specializing in all kinds of surgeries. Dr. Cammack did not pass me over to another member of the practice. He felt that I really needed to see dedicated specialists who focused exclusively on the pelvis and lower back and that he would do the research and would know more the next day. The next morning he informed me he had narrowed it down to two different teams and would have the answer the next day. Thursday morning he walked in, made sure I was okay and had everything I needed, then told me that he had spoken to the other surgeons and I would be going to HCMC early Friday morning to have the surgeries. He did the research himself (no assistants) and spoke to the surgeons so that they could clear their schedules to see me right away.

The surgeries went well except for the fact that I found out I am immune to morphine. On Monday I was back to North Memorial and back under Cammack’s care. Every day that I was in the hospital he would come and see me, regardless of which ward I was in. Including the psychiatric ward after finding out I am type 2 bipolar. If he was out of the hospital then one of his colleagues would see me. He performed both ankle surgeries at the same time (I figured it was best to get it all over with at once). He was always positive about my recovery and honest about what I could expect.

In the decade and a half that I have known him, he has gone from supremely talented doctor, to a learned friend who helped to take care of me at the worst moments of my life. If you give him a compliment, he gets genuinely uneasy but in a down-to-earth manner. He is humble, genuine, and nothing is forced about him. What you see is what you get. I am extraordinarily grateful to him for his years of taking care of my battered feet. I can honestly say that I can walk because of him.

I was a patient of Dr. Coetzee at Twin Cities Orthopedics. I have CMT (Charcot Marie Tooth Disease) which is a genetic muscle and bone disease. I injured my left ankle from a fall in September of 2017 and after months of limping around and extreme pain, I saw Dr. Coetzee and he performed surgery on June 6, 2018. He did an ankle fusion with a plate. After 5 months of recovery, I was still having a lot of pain in my foot, so Dr. Coetzee discovered that my plate was digging into my bone and new bone was beginning to grow over it. In November 2018, he removed the plate and screws from my ankle.

I am walking now with more mobility and able to do things that I couldn’t for almost a year. However, I continue to have swelling and pain in my ankle. On April 30, 2019 I saw Dr. Coetzee and looking at my Xrays he stated that my bones are healed nicely but with the swelling problem he said that I am having problems with my soft tissue, so he referred me to Susan Anderson, who is a therapist at TCO. She was wonderful and recommended some compression wraps and PT to reduce my pain and swelling and is very confident that I can overcome this problem. I am currently following this plan of treatment, my faith is strong and I believe I can improve my quality of life.

Having a disabling and degenerative muscle disease since I was a child is a very humbling and a huge character building experience. Many of my family members have this disease and has affected some worse than others. I, unfortunately, have many of the “bad” symptoms. Learning to deal with people mocking you on the way you walk, stumbling and falling down often, the pain and limited activities that I can and cannot do, has taught me to embrace the things that make me happy. I enjoy spending time with my grandchildren and doing activities like fishing, 4-wheeling, camping, bonfires, and watching baseball games, which are all very satisfying for me, and I want to make to best of my life while I still can.

I am so thankful for Dr. Coetzee and his staff for their knowledge and experience and for giving me the chance to enjoy my life! Thank you.

The last exercise during my weekly Saturday ballet class involved grand jétés, nothing new for us. We heard a loud pop and I turned my head back during the jump to see what made that sound. My leg had collapsed during the landing as I injured my achilles tendon. The ballet instructor, herself a chiropractor, immediately recommended Dr. Coetzee and added that she knows several dancers who have been his patients and were very satisfied with his work. I had my surgery and I am relieved to be added to that list of happy patients with Dr. Coetzee. My ankle was strong enough to hike Monte Leone in Switzerland. I am also back to yoga and ballet (bar only – no jumping) and am looking forward to cross country skiing. A big thank you to Dr. Coetzee!

My comeback story started January 25, 2018. I played football at the University of Northwestern Saint Paul, and we had lifting that evening. We did lower body workouts such as squats, deadlifts, and lunges. I played wide receiver and I was feeling amazing so I was lifting with the offensive line this day. The lift went great then we had an inturmal basketball game after. On the first play of this game I pushed off to run and collapsed. I had never experienced a pain like this and was yelling and crying out. I was screaming, “who kicked me.” Nobody was within ten feet of me. My football teammates carried me to the training room where we called our athletic trainer and he said I probably ruptured my Achilles at 18 years old. He thought that was unheard of and that I needed to go to the doctor as soon as possible. I called my parents and my mom told me to go to Twin Cities Orthopedics because she heard amazing things about them. So, I met my mom at TCO Maple Grove where I was told I indeed ruptured my Achilles. This was devestaing to me.

I have never had an injury of this extent. To add to my sadness, my surgery was scheduled for February 2nd and I was scheduled to volunteer at US Bank Stadium for the Super Bowl on February 4th. As with every kid who plays football, this was always been a dream of mine and it was not anymore possible. However, my surgery went perfect and I was on the road to recovery. I experienced many trials in the process, like missing one week of school and simply getting around campus in the winter seemed impossible, so I missed countless classes. However, I persevered and was able to do well in all of my classes through the grace of my professors. Along with going to therapy and meeting countless obstacles recovering.

My goal from the start was to be ready for football season in September and play in our second game of the year, which was in Los Angeles. I was told by almost everyone that it was unachiveable. I was given a time table of a 12 month recovery. I wanted to beat these odds with all of my heart. At the start of my therapy I was extremely disappointed with my results but I was on track to recover in 12 months. As the summer approached, I met with my trainer at school and he said I should consider gray shirting (medical redshirt) that upcoming year. This made me angry and pushed me to train harder. In the middle of summer, my therapist left on maturity leave and then Julie Wenda became my therapist. She asked me what my goal was and I will never forget her face because she, like everyone else, cringed. But then she said I believe in you and let’s do this.

This is exactly what I needed. She pushed me and gave me the skills I needed to succeed. As football season approached, I met with my coaches and they wanted me to grayshirt again. This was a dagger. But I believed in myself and Julie still thought I could make it. I did not grayshirt going into August. I was not able to do much with the team and was not progressing. Julie was pushing me during therapy but my trainers would not let me do drills in practice. So Julie went out of her way to writing them and calling them to tell them over and over that I was ready and needed to push myself. I am very thankful she did this for me. After Julie talked to them, they let me participate in practice. The first week of September came around and my coaches were making the roster for the game in Los Angeles and they gave me a chance to prove myself. However, they said I was not ready and I would not be able to go with them. This broke my heart. I was devastated.

When I came back to therapy that week and told Julie she was sad but she immediately turned around and asked me what my next goal is. Again, her uplifting spirit helped me through this tough time. My goal was to be able to play in a game this year. As the year went on I kept pushing myself to try and get myself ready and on the last game of the year I was able to meet this goal. This was an emotional time for me and I am beyond thankful for my family, friends, teammates, and Twin Cities Orthopedics. Without these people I would not have made this comeback and was still able to beat the odds playing in a collegiate football game 8 months after surgery. At the end of the year my teammates and coaches voted me to win the David award for our team. This award is described as the overcomer of great odds. I was honored and blessed. Through this injury I have become a better person and I have learned a lot through the adversity and I faced. Now I am preparing for next season, planning on being a 100%, and thriving. Thanks to Twin Cities Orthopedics – this is my comeback story.