BRYAN TRAUMA
Regrowing
bones at Bryan
Advanced procedure saves limbs and lives
“A
seven-year-old, with almost four inches of bone missing from his leg — my very first consult at Bryan was probably one of the worst cases I’ll see in my career,” says Steven Shannon, MD, an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Bryan Trauma, which is part of the Bryan Physician Network. In the summer of 2019, young Simon Matveyuk was on an American vacation with the rest of his Russian family when a car crash put him and his brother Timothy in the intensive care unit. Timothy was unconscious for nine days with a head wound and broken leg and pelvis, and Simon’s fracture was so severe they thought he might lose his right leg. “It was more than just a broken tibia,” says Simon’s father, Paul. “There was a hole in his leg. He was missing muscle, skin. The procedure Dr. Shannon offered was the last option.”
Special training put to use Dr. Shannon was fresh from a fellowship in orthopedic trauma at the world-renowned R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. There he gained experience in a rare technique called distraction osteogenesis. The procedure helps regrow bone using a spatial frame with pins outside the body.
Russian Simon Matveyuk (left) and Wesley White became friends while undergoing distraction osteogenesis. Bryan Journeys 23
