Help Heather Heal From Hip Complications

Heather Coracini, our friend and CrossFit coach who's devoted her life to others' health and wellness, now needs our help as she fights a rare, serious post-surgical infection that will keep her out of work for several months. Please read Heather's story, below, and consider donating to help ease the financial burden associated with mounting medical bills and loss of income in the months ahead.

Heather’s Story

As many of you know, Heather is a super athlete and all-around superwoman with less-than-super hip joints. Years of pain and limited mobility led to the news that she would need both hips "resurfaced" -- a less invasive alternative to hip replacement for younger, highly active patients like Heather.

A successful resurfacing surgery on her right hip was performed in 2021. Heather was looking forward to a second and final resurfacing on her left hip on March 2, 2023. That surgery seemed to go fine initially, but the first signs of complications arose three (3) weeks later when Heather noticed an issue with the incision. On July 5, it became apparent that she was dealing with an infection of some kind. Heather tried not to panic and immediately scheduled an appointment with the surgeon for the following day, July 6th, but he assured her that her incision looked fine. Heather was anything but assured, and continued to press the issue. By July 10th, she had medical confirmation that the incision was infected by her general practitioner and surgeon. The surgeon told her he hoped the infection was limited to the incision site (i.e. superficial) and would require just an overnight hospital stay. A "debridement" surgery was then scheduled for July 11th, where the surgeon discovered a deep tissue infection. The news was devastating to Heather.

What followed was an eight-day hospital stay, discharge with a PICC line and a 6-week course of strong IV antibiotics. "Hopefully I'll just be out of work for a few weeks at most," Heather, a single mom to Amelia, told her friends and athletes at DFX CrossFit, where she is the head coach. But more bad news followed. Though the surgeon proclaimed that the incision and labs "looked great" the day she got her stitches out on July 27th, she awoke in excruciating pain just two days later.

On July 31, Heather's surgeon (located in South Carolina) told her to go to Duke Hospital in Durham, NC because an extraction surgery was needed to remove the hip implant. She was in triage at the Duke ER for 36 hours, but they would not admit her as an ortho patient. Lots of healthcare bureaucracy followed. Heather was eventually told she would need to have surgery to remove the infected implant with the original team in Columbia SC the week of August 7th.

Today, Heather is mostly bed bound, waiting for surgery in South Carolina as her surgeons decide one of a few courses of action -- with the most likely being to remove her infected hip and put in a temporary antibiotic spacer, which she would have for 6-12 weeks, followed by a total hip replacement. Heather is holding onto hope that she is a good candidate for an alternative option, which would treat the hip infection at the source and, if successful, would not require extraction surgery. Either way, one thing is clear--our friend will be off her feet, out of the gym, and out of work for several months.

It is so hard to see this strong, independent lady suffer physically and struggle as she faces the unknown, but what we can do is make sure she knows she is not in this fight alone.