ABC 7 News – World Champion Surfer Joey Hawkins Surgery

He’s Orange County’s first longboard surfing world champion. [inaudible], but his back pay the price. How surgeons were able to fix him in just two days.

A local surfing champion has lived nearly all of his adult life in excruciating back pain. At times he’s been barely able to stand, much less walk. Now he may soon be in the water, thanks to a generous surgeon and a unique operation.

Joey Hawkins started surfing at the age of two, but the constant gyrations required of short boarding eroded a disc in his lower spine.

By the time I was 17, like 1987, I had already pretty much blown my back out.

But that didn’t stop him. The injury attracted him to the easier to paddle long boards. Joey weaved in his acrobatic style, and at the age of 20, [inaudible] the world’s. But victory came at a great cost. Shortly after, he underwent emergency back surgery.

I never had a day of adult life where I didn’t have back problems. I don’t have insurance. I don’t, I think my back problem has kept me from working full time my entire adult life, you know, working.

Okay, after years of disability, Joey went to spine surgeon Dr. Hooman Melamed. His surgery cost will be covered by his nonprofit Back to You Foundation.

It’s to basically help patients who really, really need surgery, like in his case, and who don’t have the means.

The disc between Joey’s L5 and S1 vertebrae was almost gone. It was nearly bone on bone. So what Dr. Melamed had to do was open up the space and put in a prosthetic. But instead of going through the back, he wanted to go in through the front.

I personally like to go in the front, because I think it’s more minimally invasive in my hands.

Compared to conventional back surgery, Dr. Melamed says patients lose less blood, use fewer pain medications and recover faster. A vascular surgeon enters through a two inch incision in the abdomen, clearing a path to Joey’s spine. At that point, Dr. Melamed puts in a spacer and then fuses that area of the spine.

A few weeks after surgery, Joey says the pain is gone. He’s even thinking about surfing again with his daughter.

She’s all, “Dad, be able to teach me to surf this summer,” and I’m like [inaudible].

He’s hoping to take her this summer. And Dr. Melamed says most of his patients who get spine surgery through the abdomen can go home the same day or the very next morning. So it’s always good to explore your options. Always get a second opinion.

All right, Denise, thank you so much.