07/22/2026
Imagine waking up in a hospital bed with no memory of what happened.
That was Gail’s reality after a serious car crash in March 2025 that left her with a devastating injury.
After retiring from the Army Dental Corps, Gail had built a quiet, independent life in Warsaw, Missouri, spending time with her rescue cats, tending to her garden and helping care for her parents. But her crash left her with a severe pilon fracture, a complex injury that crushed her ankle joint and threatened her ability to walk without pain.
That’s when she met Dr. Kyle Schweser at the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute.
Together, they discussed all of her options and decided on an innovative procedure to repair her fracture and replace her ankle joint at the same time. The procedure offered Gail the opportunity to reclaim the independence she feared losing after the crash.
Dr. Schweser and his team were the first in the U.S. to publish documentation on this approach for pilon fractures, helping create new possibilities for patients with these complex injuries.
After her surgery and rehabilitation at our Rusk Rehabilitation Hospital, Gail slowly worked her way from a wheelchair to walking on her own again.
When she got home and climbed the steps for the first time after her injury, she knew she had made the right decision.
“I wanted to be independent, and I wanted to be able to do things myself,” Gail said. “Dr. Schweser and his entire team at MU Health Care were lifesavers.”
