Harry Meade may need an artificial elbow
Harry Meade might have to undergo further surgery to have an artificial elbow fitted after he broke and dislocated both of his arms in a rotational fall at Wellington Horse Trials (26 August).
Harry, 30, underwent 2 long periods of surgery at Basingstoke Hospital in August to reconstruct his elbows, but further X-rays this week have shown that some of the bones are not healing.
“After this week’s review they feel that although healing is still taking place in the left arm, they have run out of ideas with the right and an artificial joint is the only remaining option,” Harry said in a statement on his website.
“This news was a massive disappointment as everything seemed to be going so well with regaining the range of movement in both arms.
“The downside of this is the long term repercussions it will have as, unlike hips and knees, elbow joints are complicated and artificial replacements are a rare and relatively untested procedure with a short lifespan so need replacing fairly often.”
Harry will go to London for a 2nd opinion, but is scheduled in for the operation at Basingstoke Hospital at the end of this week.
To add to the drama his wife Rosie is due to have their 2nd child in 2 weeks time.
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“Hopefully she can hang on until I’m out otherwise we could be in 2 separate wards at the same time,” Harry added.
Harry’s team at home has been keeping the horses working with help from Olympic gold medallist Laura Tomlinson and trainer Angela Tucker.
If he does have the surgery this week, Harry hopes to be back in the saddle within 6 weeks and able to compete at the start of the season.
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Sophia Heath joined Horse & Hound in July 2013 having previously worked for the Daily Telegraph's Olympics website, CNN International and Omnisport. A Durham graduate with a Masters in journalism from City University, Sophia has evented, showjumped and hunted. Sophia left Horse & Hound in early 2015 to join an international boating website.