Seen and Heard: Transformative total hip replacement with Dr. Daniel O'Connor

When Brianna Barry walked through the doors of Valley View for the first time in 2022, she recalls being at “wits’ end.” Brianna had flatlined several months earlier after a severe car accident on I-70 ejected her from her car and left her with a traumatic brain injury, a shattered left leg, broken femur and hip on the right leg and broken bones in her face. “The EMTs didn’t know if I would make it,” she says.

Before coming to Valley View, she underwent 13 surgeries on various body parts: both legs, hip and eye socket; along with focused recovery on her traumatic brain injury all while managing multiple sclerosis (MS). Her leg and hip, however, weren’t healing correctly. “I didn’t know how bad my hip was,” Brianna says. It wasn’t until she got to Valley View that she learned she has avascular necrosis and her hip had collapsed. “I had been walking around like that for nine months. I was in so much pain and did everything I could to not depend solely on medications.”

Luckily, one of her best friends from childhood, Evan Claussner, works as a certified surgical technologist at Valley View and introduced Brianna to ValleyOrtho orthopedic surgeon and joint replacement and surgical reconstruction specialist, Dr. Daniel O’Connor. Within a week, Brianna had her first appointment with Dr. O’Connor, who eventually gave her a total hip replacement and restored her leg length, gaining two centimeters.

Now, Brianna is looking forward to getting back to her favorite things pending one more surgery. “I love going uphill. Skinning, hiking 14ers, carrying animals out on my back from hunting, pushing my body to the max.” She says this is all because of Dr. O’Connor who at first was only her doctor but also emerged as a role model for Brianna, who aspires to work with people and change their lives the way Dr. O’Connor changed hers.

“Dr. O’Connor is my favorite doctor,” she says. “I felt so informed. He does everything he can for the wellbeing of the patient and the best outcome of the surgery. He creates a very trusting environment in which I was confident I would come out on the other side better off.”

Her surgery after the accident (the first at Valley View) was so crucial, not only because it gave Brianna her sense of self back, but because she felt seen, heard and treated holistically. Her life and body were back in balance. “I was totally off kilter and coming back into alignment was life changing. It was the best feeling ever,” she says. “I wouldn’t have that experience without the wholehearted attentiveness and kindness from the whole team at Valley View, from intake to release. It’s so fluid, it’s unlike any experience I’ve had a hospital.”