Rib Fixation Surgery Offers Hope

After a devastating injury, Hannah Campbell, a high school student in Tennessee, was looking at a lifetime of pain. 

Although most rib fractures do heal on their own, some don’t. Patients with these nonunion rib fractures, like Hannah, find themselves with few options. That is until her family found Evert Eriksson, M.D. who specializes in a surgical rib fixation procedure that offers hope for people who suffer from unhealed ribs. In 2020, Dr. Eriksson started a rib fracture clinic that takes referrals from providers from across the state and, lately, across the Southeast. 

After months of being told there was nothing to be done for Hannah’s unhealed broken rib, which left her in so much pain every second of the day that she couldn’t complete basic tasks like reaching down to unload the dishwasher, Eriksson performed a rib fixation surgery, attaching a titanium plate to the rib to hold it in place so it could finally heal. Suddenly, Hannah’s future transformed. Instead of a life of pain, barely holding down a minimum wage job, the entire world opened up to her.

“There is a clear group of patients that benefit from surgical rib fixation after they break their ribs. Less is known about ribs that do not heal,” Eriksson noted. However, he added, “A lot of us who have operated on nonunion rib fractures have similar results to Hannah’s – the patient feels considerably better.”

Grateful for Hannah full recovery, the Campbells wanted to share their story to spread the word that there are treatments available for unhealed broken ribs. Read her full story.