Candy Palmater remembers the day she couldn’t fight the pain any longer. “I was alone in a hotel room and I couldn’t put on my own nylons.” At the young age of 40, Candy was forced to face the truth that she needed a hip replacement.
Diagnosed with arthritis two years earlier, Candy did her best to not let her condition hold her back. “I suffered with arthritis pain for years, until it took my independence from me. I could no longer drive or sit through a movie,” recalls Candy, who at the time, was at the beginning of a budding career in entertainment.
Candy was referred to Dr. Michael Dunbar, an orthopaedic surgeon at the QEII Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Dunbar was confident he could get Candy back on her feet, living a life free of pain.“ Dr. Dunbar performed my hip replacement and gave me my life back.”
Recently, Candy shared her inspiring story at an announcement that is welcome news to Atlantic Canadians who will greatly benefit from further research into the complicated area of orthopaedics.
Dr. Dunbar was named the inaugural QEII Foundation Endowed Chair in Arthroplasty Outcomes. The QEII is a major orthopaedic centre in Atlantic Canada, seeing almost 6,600 patients each year for orthopaedic surgery. Nova Scotia has significant challenges associated with the delivery of arthroplasty care, which is a surgical procedure to restore the integrity and function of a joint. Challenges in the delivery of care include long wait times for surgery and even more concerning, a higher failure rate than the national average.
The QEII Foundation Endowed Chair in Arthroplasty Outcomes is a $2.8-million investment and was made possible through generous QEII Foundation donors, and funding partners BMO Financial Group and the QEII Health Sciences Centre Division of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Dr. Dunbar’s research will focus on improving delivery of care and outcomes for arthroplasty patients, giving them timely access to care and better quality of life.
Hip and knee replacements transform lives. It relieves pain, restores physical function and greatly improves quality of life. Since her surgery, Candy’s career has sky rocketed - something, she says, that wouldn’t have been possible without her hip replacement surgery at the QEII under Dr. Dunbar’s confident ability.
“I am hopeful that research will continue to advance so that others living under the oppression of extreme pain can experience the liberation that replacement surgery can bring,” says Candy.
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