Injured worker gets long awaited surgery

A transport driver, injured in a workplace accident, was among the first Epworth HealthCare patients to have elective surgery when a government slowdown was lifted last week.

Dean Wickham was scheduled to have knee replacement surgery at Epworth Richmond in April of this year – the day the Federal Government banned non-urgent procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The surgery with Mr Andrew Tang, Director of the Epworth Musculoskeletal Clinical Institute and orthopaedic surgeon, had to be put on-hold.

Elective surgery briefly resumed before being paused again, due to the second COVID-19 wave in Victoria.

Mr Wickham was restricted to light duties at work while waiting for the surgery.

“I was lucky that I could still walk around with my knee strapped, and my work created a light duties job for me,” Mr Wickham said.

Mr Wickham is hopeful he will get back to the transport job he has held for 31 years, now he has had the knee replacement surgery.

“I’m not going to be breaking ten seconds for the 100m, but I want to get back to work doing what I was doing before.”