Xhanti Williams’ Story of Hope

Xhantiana Williams has lived in Cleveland since 2013, when she moved from her Michigan hometown at age 19 to live in a bigger city.

After jobs in data entry and accounts payable, Xhanti landed a position with a chemical manufacturing company as a systems software instructor. At age 29, she received her associate degree from Cuyahoga Community College in 2022, then enrolled at Hiram College for a bachelor’s degree in accounting and financial management.

In the early evening of Saturday, July 30, 2022, Xhanti and one of her girlfriends were heading home after hanging out at Edgewater Park. They had just merged onto the highway. From the passenger side, Xhanti noticed a car passing them on the right and thought, “Wow, they were kind of close.” As the car moved over, the tire popped. The car went through the median and struck a bridge embankment.

Immediately, Xhanti’s chest felt like it was caving in. She could barely breathe. She noticed that her right leg felt heavy and numb. Her head started bleeding. When a bystander tried to get Xhanti to unbend her leg, she felt excruciating pain.

The women were rushed to MetroHealth Medical Center. Xhanti’s friend had sustained a broken left arm and sprained right arm.

Xhanti’s injuries were much more serious. Her leg was weighed down with a metal rod attached to the bed to keep it intact. The next morning, orthopedic surgeon Roger Wilber, MD, performed a three-hour surgery, relocating Xhanti’s broken femur bone and inserting a permanent plate in her right hip with five screws.

“It was a pretty big injury,” said Nick Sherry, a physician assistant in orthopedics. The big worry over a dislocated femur is that it will cut off the blood supply, causing a condition called avascular necrosis that can lead to bone collapse.

Xhanti went home on August 3. Dr. Wilber put Xhanti on four weeks of strict bed rest. Her only activities were approved exercises to strengthen her leg, which was bandaged and stapled.

Two weeks after coming home, Xhanti had recurring chest pain. She called Dr. Wilber’s office.

“I said, ‘Let me call them first in case I’m being dramatic,’” Xhanti says. Adrienne Edwards, an administrative employee in the Department of Orthopedics, told her she needed to come back to the hospital right away. After an extensive workup to rule out anything major, Xhanti was sent home. After a few weeks, Xhanti could finally breathe without any pain.

Dr. Wilber extended Xhanti’s bed rest from four weeks to 10.  In between reading, doing crossword puzzles, watching lots of television, and taking five classes online during the fall semester, Xhanti communicated with Adrienne a lot, mostly through the MyChart app.

She was my go-to for any issues I had,” Xhanti says. “Any paperwork I needed, whether it was for disability insurance or something else, Adrienne was amazing.”

The go-to for countless orthopedic patients, Adrienne reminds them of follow-up appointments, helps them navigate the process of submitting Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) forms to their employer, and makes sure they get medication refills and handicap placards. “I try my hardest to make things as easy for our patients as possible,” she says.

On October 11, Dr. Wilber lifted Xhanti’s bed rest orders and gave her the go-ahead to start outpatient physical therapy. By then, the staples and bandages on her leg had been removed.

Physical therapist Raymond “Andy” Lumpkin sensed that the walker Xhanti was using was impacting her self-image. The two got to work at MetroHealth’s Sports Medicine and Physical Therapy office at Broadview Heights. After a month, Xhanti no longer needed the walker, and her pronounced limp had lessened.

Andy drew on Xhanti’s athleticism from her days as a high school basketball standout. He incorporated “ladder drills” to improve her footwork agility. She graduated from physical therapy on December 15.

In late February, Dr. Wilber told Xhanti she could resume most of her regular activities.

“From the time I got in, to the time I left the hospital, MetroHealth took great care of me,” she says. “I’ll always be grateful to them for saving my life!”