Tim Otto has a zest for life. As a boy and later a young man, he was an expert skateboarder, and as Tim approached 50, he continued to surf and ski.
Those activities cause wear on the knees, but it was something less conspicuous that brought the La Verne native to Casa Colina to undergo a partial knee replacement using the revolutionary Mako™ robotic arm-assisted surgical system.
"While jogging, I stepped off a curb to avoid a dog and tore the meniscus in my left knee," said Tim, now a Pomona resident and a journeyman plumbing installer, describing the 2013 incident. "That started everything."
Sadly, the cartilage in Tim’s knee was badly damaged. Something more than traditional meniscus surgery had to be done.
"I was bone on bone, and it was never the same after I injured it," said Tim.
Meanwhile, the pain Tim was experiencing continued over the next three years, and he was forced to wear a knee brace.
"I had been undergoing knee injections and was looking into different options – cartilage regrowth and things like that," Tim said. "In my 50s, I'll need to work hard to finish out my pension, and I didn't want to wait around. I'll want to play hard, too!"