Orthopaedics Experts at Euclid Hospital Put High School Coach Back in Game 

 

 

When you pull the kneecaps off both of your knees, you know you’re in trouble.  It’s not like losing hubcaps off your car.  And it can be especially challenging if you’re teaching high school, coaching three different sports, and raising two active toddlers with a pregnant wife.  When your life is that active, it’s helpful to have kneecaps that stay put. 

  

Just ask Chris Taglieri.  The Willoughby South High School coach was running a drill for the varsity girls’ basketball team when he decided to demonstrate a move.  He began to jump up and … ouch!

“I felt a sharp pain, and when I looked down, I saw my kneecaps up in my thighs,” he says.  “I’ve seen dislocated knees before, and I thought that’s what it was.”

Taglieri, 34, had ruptured his tendons, the fibrous bands that connect muscle to bone. Fortunately for him, the school’s athletic trainer, Diane Nemethy, made sure Taglieri got the help of James Williams, M.D., director of the Cleveland Clinic Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Euclid Hospital and a specialist in sports injuries and arthroscopic surgery.

Orthopaedic Group Overhauls Patients’ Bodies

In 1999, the Cleveland Clinic Department of Orthopaedic Surgery opened a full-service office practice in the Euclid Hospital Medical Office Building and the doctors began performing surgeries at Euclid Hospital.  Today, nine Cleveland Clinic orthopaedic surgeons practice at the Euclid location and perform surgeries at Euclid Hospital.

 

 

The Cleveland Clinic Orthopaedic Program at Euclid Hospital provides general orthopaedic services as well as in specialty areas such as sports medicine, total joint replacement, back and neck pain, foot and ankle problems, shoulder, elbow, hand and wrist problems, arthritis, and more.

Cleveland Clinic Orthopaedics and Euclid Hospital are celebrating the fifth year of their partnership. For the past several years, U.S. News & World Report has consistently ranked the Cleveland Clinic Department of Orthopaedic Surgery among the nation’s top five orthopaedic programs.  The ranking appears in the magazine’s annual “America’s Best Hospitals “ survey.

 

 

The partnership between Euclid Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic Department of Orthopaedic Surgery brings this nationally ranked program out into the community and allows for convenient access to world-renowned doctors from the Cleveland Clinic, as well as to the attentive, quality care at Euclid Hospital.

 

 

This was good news for Chris Taglieri who lives close to the hospital.  In one convenient location, Taglieri had office visits with Dr. Williams, underwent surgery, received his nursing and post-operative care, and benefited from rehabilitation services.

 

 

The day after Taglieri’s ill-fated basketball drill, he underwent a different kind of drill during five hours of surgery, which required drilling holes through his kneecaps.

 

 

Since he had been used to an extremely active lifestyle, it was tough for Taglieri to be immobilized.  In addition to teaching mathematics at Willoughby South, he is the head coach for the girls’ varsity basketball team, an assistant varsity football coach, and the head coach of the freshman boys’ baseball team.

 

 

“Being sidelined was pretty depressing,” he adds.  “After the surgery, I had to lay flat on my back for two weeks.  But the people at Euclid Hospital were great.  The nurses made my life so much better by checking up on me and talking with me.  Dr Williams was also very supportive.  He told me what was what without sugar coating anything.  I really appreciated that.”

 

 

The surgery itself was nothing to sugar coat either.  “His knees were really shredded,” says Dr. Williams.  “Imagine a braided rope that has ripped or a bunch of spaghetti; that’s what his tendons were like.  We drilled holes through his platellas, and then we strung tendons through the holes to hold the bone in place.”

 “Chris exceeded my expectations by doing a remarkable job with his recovery,” the physician adds.  “I think the outpouring of help he received from the community surprised him, and he didn’t want to let anyone down.”

 

 

That outpouring included a fundraiser spearheaded by the school’s athletic director, Frank Platzer, and his secretary, Kate Wells.  “The staff raised close to $1,500 so that we could buy gifts for our kids and still have a happy Christmas,” says Taglieri.  “Of course, I cried.  It’s nice to know people care.”

 

 

“The students were also great,” he adds.  “I was able to come in for the last week of school, and tons of kids came to my classroom to welcome me back and tell me they missed me.  They had also sent cards.  I couldn’t ask for better kids or a better school.”

 

 

Perhaps the biggest surprise for Taglieri and his basketball team was the helping hand they received from the Rockers, Cleveland’s Women’s National Basketball Association team.  In an effort to boost morale among the high school players who missed their coach, the Rockers sent their point guard, Helen Darling, to conduct a practice for the girls.

 

Besides community support, Taglieri had another motivation for getting better.  During the initial stages of his recovery, his wife, Kelly, had a sonogram, which showed that a baby brother, Anthony,  would soon join their two daughters, Alyssa and Brianna.  “The baby was my inspiration,” says Chris Taglieri.  “I wanted to make sure I was better before he was born.”

 

 

Taglieri needed that inspiration for the rehabilitation process, which was tough. “But the Euclid Hospital staff was absolutely tremendous,” he says. “I especially got a lot of help from John Smith, who is a great trainer at Euclid Hospital’s Outpatient Therapy Center. This is very ironic because John is the athletic trainer at Eastlake North High School, our arch rival in sports!” 

 

 

Taglieri’s hard work paid off.  “His long-term prognosis is good,” says Dr. Williams.  “He should be able to resume all his previous activities with no restrictions.”

 

 

The doctor as ultra marathoner

Dr. Williams’s extensive personal experience with athletics and coaching makes him especially empathetic to injured athletes and coaches.  After graduating in 1983 from the University of Massachusetts with an M.A. in sports management, he coached women’s alpine ski racing at Middlebury College, as well as the United States Olympic Ski Team, for which his brother was a member.

 

 

In addition to skiing, Dr. Williams, 50, has coached soccer, wrestling, tennis, track and field, football, lacrosse, and squash.  He still helps coach the various sports teams in which his five children are involved, and he serves as team physician for Euclid High School, Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School, and John Carroll University. 

 

Although he spends time on the sidelines, the doctor also gets into the thick of the action.  Throughout the years, he has participated in all the sports that he coached.  And he still runs.  In fact, he runs so much that marathons (26.2-mile races) are short distances for him.  Instead, he competes in ultra marathons, which are 30- to 50-mile races.

 

A fifth generation physician, Dr. Williams feels that he was meant to be a doctor.  “I didn’t go to medical school until I’d already been out of college for 10 years,” he says.  “But I’m now doing what I always wanted.  Orthopaedics and sports are my life.”

 

“My favorite part of this work is the interaction with patients,” he adds.  “Since I feel that the whole psyche of an individual is important, I take a lot of time with every patient, from whom I learn a lot.  I work with wonderful people both in my practice and at the hospital, which has a beautiful view of Lake Erie.  It doesn’t get any better than this.”