High School Athlete Makes Big Comeback From Knee Surgery

ACL repair makes it possible for Tommy Roth to successfully compete in three varsity sports

By Paul Wirth

High School Athlete Makes Big Comeback From Knee Surgery at LVHN

Tommy Roth and his mom, JoAnn Roth.

Football player comes back from ACL injury after care at LVHN.

Tommy Roth and his sister.

Fourteen-year-old Tommy Roth had just caught the football. All eyes were on him as he headed for the goal line.

“I was running a jet sweep,” he says, looking back on that day near the end of his freshman football season at Allentown Central Catholic High School. “Then I cut back behind my blocker, and my knee just gave out.”

It was a torn ACL – the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee – and it would require surgery. His season was over.

Now ‘you’d never know he was injured,’ says mom

That was two years ago. Roth has made quite the comeback since then, returning to varsity football at Central, and also playing two other varsity sports, basketball and lacrosse. “You should see him play,” says his mom, JoAnn Roth. “You’d never know he was injured.”

Tommy’s quick and successful comeback is thanks to the team at Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute, JoAnn Roth says, including Wayne Luchetti, MD, the Roth family’s orthopedic surgeon.

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The Roths are an athletic bunch, it turns out. Three Roth children – Tommy and his sisters Sammy and Julia – have had ACL repairs performed by Dr. Luchetti.

Successful therapy is physical, but it’s also mental

Tommy’s mom also credits physical therapist Katie Drayton, with LVHN Rehabilitation Services–1621 N. Cedar Crest, who has worked with all of her children during the nine-month recovery and rehabilitation period after ACL surgery.

“Despite how common it is, this surgery is a tough and long recovery,” says Drayton. “We try to set small goals and celebrate when we hit those benchmarks. We also try to make it fun, like talking about sports teams, music and other interests while they’re exercising so it doesn’t feel so monotonous.”

“Therapy is physical, but it’s also very mental,” JoAnn Roth says. “She connects with these kids to keep them motivated to do the work, twice a week, for nine months.”

“Despite how common it is, this surgery is a tough and long recovery.” - Katie Drayton, physical therapist

“I think Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute is by far the best place to have an ACL reconstruction due to our team approach,” says Dr. Luchetti. “We stay in close communication with high school and college trainers to get these athletes back on the field as quickly and safely as possible.”

“I have recommended Dr. Luchetti and his team to so many people,” says JoAnn Roth. “I feel like they are family members at this point.

“We would never go to anyone else.”