Kaori’s Story

“For the last several years, I was doing everything with pain. Now, I’m back to work and life and feeling so much better.”

Born with congenital hip dysplasia, Kaori was always aware that she may face painful mobility issues later in life. She remained active in an attempt to keep herself mobile and manage her condition until she experienced a pain in her hip that she had never felt before.

“I’ll never forget the sound my hip made that day while I was on a run. It was a huge crack!” says Kaori. “I immediately knew I had done something wrong.”

Following her injury, Kaori visited a number of specialists and attempted various treatment options before finally receiving a referral for a total hip replacement.

In Canada, the average length of a hospital stay following a hip replacement is several days. Women’s College Hospital is changing that: thanks to a combination of state-of-the-art surgical and anesthetic techniques and an innovative new virtual care app, patients undergoing joint replacement surgeries at WCH are able to return home just hours after surgery while remaining fully connected to their care teams.

As an active individual with a strong support network, Kaori was the ideal candidate for the same-day surgery at Women’s College Hospital. Revolutionary anesthesia techniques that reduce nausea commonly associated with surgery and an innovative, take-home virtual care application allowed her to leave the hospital just hours after surgery, while remaining fully connected to her care team from the comfort of home.

“Being able to recover from surgery in the comfort of home, being able to be with my young son, and still feeling confident that I could connect with my care team at any time was so helpful to my recovery,” explains Kaori.

For Kaori, finally undergoing surgery to correct her hip has meant a dramatic improvement in her quality of life. “For the last several years, I was doing everything with pain. Now, I’m back to work and life and feeling so much better.”