Beacon Bone & Joint team gives patient second chance after severe injury

It was back in July 2018 when Sue Gruett lost her footing on a stepstool and broke her leg, quite badly. For a fall from a stepstool, the injuries were severe. One doctor told her it was as if she hit a wall at 70 miles per hour.

“Long story short, they wanted to do surgery the next day,” Sue says. “Thank God, I got sent up to the Trauma Center at Memorial Hospital.”

Two surgeries were performed to repair her leg with rods, plates and screws. Sue learned that the severity of her injury was due to osteoporosis, a condition that makes bones weak and brittle.

For two years after her fall, she received a monthly injection to increase her bone density. This helped her overall bone health, although she still had knee pain from her original injury. Her pain worsened, but she wasn’t sure where to turn, as the trauma surgeon who performed her initial surgery was no longer with Beacon.

Time was taking a toll on her joint. “My leg was very crooked. When I walked, I was lopsided,” she says. As a safety and security monitor for the school system, she spent every day on her feet and couldn’t find relief.

“I finally couldn’t take the pain anymore,” she explains. She had heard about a joint specialist at Beacon who was highly regarded and sought him out: Dr. Gregg Ebersole, an orthopedic surgeon with Beacon Bone & Joint Specialists Navarre.

Getting a new joint

After ordering X-rays, Dr. Ebersole confirmed Sue’s suspicion that she needed joint replacement surgery.

“Sue had developed significant post-traumatic arthritis with bone-on-bone rubbing,” Dr. Ebersole says. He notes that her condition was unique due to the presence of plates and screws, which can make joint replacement surgery and recovery more challenging. Her osteoporosis was also a major factor.

“In her case, the best treatment would have been prevention. Since her bones were more brittle, she had a severe fracture from a ground-level fall,” he says. If her osteoporosis had been identified and treatment started earlier, Sue might have been able to avoid such a severe injury.

Dr. Ebersole reminds all post-menopausal women to have their bone density assessed and seek treatment if needed.

Dr. Ebersole replaced Sue’s knee in August 2025. “He’s absolutely amazing,” Sue says, noting that the surgery was complex given the amount of hardware in her leg and the need to prevent additional nerve damage. “When he did the surgery, he had to go into an original scar and shave some of the pins to get the prosthesis in,” she says.

“The complexity was increased due to her previous surgery, hardware and scar tissue,” Dr. Ebersole confirms. “We were able to selectively remove some of the screws and successfully perform her knee replacement. Due to our preparation and teamwork, it went as smooth as I could ask for.”

The result? “It was such instant relief,” Sue recalls. She says that every step of the way, her care went well. “My hospital stay was good, my release was good, post-op was good and my therapy was good. I had not one negative experience,” she says.

Sue also gives credit to nurse practitioner Kelsey Namisnak, Beacon Bone & Joint Specialists Navarre, who assisted at the surgery. “Both Dr. Ebersole and Kelsey have a great bedside manner.”

Feeling blessed

Sue feels wonderful today, thanks to her care team and her own desire to enjoy being active again.

“I felt blessed that it went so well. It’s the doctors, it’s the team, it’s the determination,” she says.” In fact, she and her husband are mountain climbers, and she has set a goal to do a new mountain trail next August, a year after her replacement. “I very much feel like I’m on track for that!” she says.

To others who are struggling with joint pain, she offers this advice: “Don’t wait. You have to listen to your body … anybody that needs a knee or hip replacement, Dr. Ebersole is the person.”