Carol Vallencort's Story
Down, but not out, a broken hip postpones Carol Vallencort’s retirement plans
Carol Vallencort served for 20 years on the Clay County School Board. She enjoyed most things about her job, including dedicating news schools and visiting with the students. In 2010 Carol faced a decision; she could run for reelection again or retire. She was looking forward to spending more time with her seven grandchildren, so she chose to retire. She didn’t know that her retirement would begin with a broken hip. Carol was taken to Orange Park Medical Center where Dr. Michael Patney, and orthopedic surgeon with First Coast Orthopedics who practices at the hospital, replaced her left hip joint. Well along the road to recovery, Carol is now enjoying her retirement.
With about two months left of her last board term, Carol fell in the bathroom late one evening. She called out for her husband, Frank, who called 911. “The pain was terrible,” Carol remembers. On the way to Orange Park Medical Center, thoughts about what would happen raced through her mind. “Well, I’ve broken my hip, I thought, and I knew that wasn’t a good thing. I thought I’m probably going to have this hip operated on.”
Carol says when she’s ill, she gets nervous. However, Carol had been in Orange Park Medical Center before, so she wasn’t at all nervous about being transported there. “I’ve had very good care every time I’ve been there,” she says, “so I had no qualms about going to Orange Park Medical Center.”
This emergency visit proved no different. “When I got to the hospital they got me in for a CT scan right away, so they’d have that ready for the doctor, so there wasn’t any waiting time between the scan and the time the doctor came in,” Carol says.
Dr. Patney told Carol that she had indeed broken her left hip. He recommended a complete hip replacement, because she would be able to put her full weight on it sooner than if she had a hip repair. Carol took Dr. Patney’s advice. Unlike people who have an elective hip replacement, Carol had no time to do any research about her options. But Carol says she trusted Dr. Patney. “I liked him. I just felt very secure and comfortable and very confident about him,” she says. “He is straight forward and comes right out and tells you what’s going on and what his recommendation is. I’ve seen him several times since. I know he’s a very competent surgeon, and I’ve heard some very good things about him.”
After surgery, Carol spent a couple days in the hospital and then a month in a rehabilitation hospital. During that time she was determined to fulfill her school board term, so Frank would take her to the meetings in a wheelchair. “The care at Orange Park Medical Center was very good,” Carol says. “Whenever I called for a nurse, they were right there. Whatever I needed, it was right there for me, and everybody was very friendly.”
Carol recalls waking up in the hospital the morning after surgery and being disoriented and scared. “I hollered out, and a nurse came right in and stayed right there with me. I said I wanted to see my husband. She told me he had gone home, but they would call him. I was so disoriented, but they were quite helpful.”
After achieving her rehabilitation goals, Carol was discharged from the rehabilitation hospital. She and Frank are together again. They are both glad for that, if for no other reason than they both missed her cooking. “I like to cook, so I’ve missed that,” Carol says. She’s also looking forward to spending that time with her grandchildren she was looking forward to so much when she first thought of retirement.