Top Orthopedic Care Supported by Patient Blood Management Team – Worth the Drive for Bloodless Surgery

When Pam Akers learned last November that her arthritic, 73-year-old left hip was the source of her agonizing pain and physical limitations, and needed to be replaced, “It blew my mind,” she says. She thought the pain was coming from her back, which had been ailing for years.

She searched for an orthopedic surgeon who performs “bloodless” surgery in her Damascus, Pa., community but found none. Akers is a Jehovah’s Witness; she cannot receive blood transfusions.

She sought advice from the elders of her congregation and chose Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute, part of Jefferson Health, from a list of recommended physicians.

While Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) is a two-hour drive from Akers’ home in Northeast Pennsylvania, she trusted the Hospital Liaison Committee of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ recommendation, which has had a long and positive relationship with LVHN.

She reached out to Kelly Frinzi, lead patient liaison for LVHN’s patient blood management team, asking for a referral to an orthopedic surgeon. Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute is ranked one of the best in the country by U.S. News & World Report, an accolade Akers strongly supports.    

Akers soon met with Frinzi who listened respectfully to Akers’ goals and concerns, explained the program and helped prepare her for the process that would lead to her total hip replacement. 

“LVHN has a reputation among the Jehovah’s Witnesses as the place you can go for bloodless surgery and where you find compassion and respect,” Frinzi says.  “We work with the patient before, during and after surgery to ensure they have a good experience.”

Akers found Frinzi and her team “sensitive to my needs. They gave me peace of mind.”

LVHN’s bloodless surgery program has grown from providing 7,500 patient encounters in 2019 when it started to more than 30,000 in 2024. (Each appointment, consultation, test, radiologic scan, procedure or surgery counts as a separate patient encounter.) Each member of the patient blood management team is certified by the national Society for the Advancement of Patient Blood Management. LVHN has 65 surgeons, in all specialties, who are committed to providing this surgery. 

Akers met with orthopedic surgeon Christopher Ferrante, MD, who patiently explained the bloodless surgery, step by step, and reviewed the drugs and devices that could be used, if needed, to limit blood loss during the procedure. They include the protein albumin, medicines that control blood pressure, promote blood-clotting and generate red blood-cells and coagulation, and blood-salvage instruments. He gave Akers educational videos to watch at home to prepare for her operation. All this further confirmed her choice of LVHN for her surgery.

“I liked Dr. Ferrante’s friendly and professional manner immediately,” she recalls. “I was very comfortable with him and his staff.”

The day of her scheduled surgery, Feb. 13, Northeast Pennsylvania was slammed by a snowstorm that dropped more than six inches on the area.

This blizzard didn’t dampen Akers’ spirit, nor that of her daughter, Sara Akers, her mother’s key supporter and driver throughout the experience. They left home long before dawn, Sara at the wheel for the two-and-one-half hour trip to the Center for Orthopedic Medicine at LVHN–Tilghman in Allentown. Both women were eager for the surgery to take place as scheduled.

Frinzi and Dr. Ferrante met them there, and he completed the operation in an hour, with just a minimum of lost blood. Akers was discharged home the following day, grateful to him, Frinzi and the bloodless surgery personnel that took care of her.

“They are a seamless, well-oiled machine,” Akers says, “and treated me with compassion and respect.”

For the first time in several years, she was able to plant her flowers and vegetables in the spring without hip pain.

She has been praising LVHN to her friends and family as the place to go for surgery, from far or near.

“From now on, I’m going to Lehigh Valley Hospital for all my major care,” she promises.

“They deserve the [U.S. News & World Report] award, and it’s worth the drive.”