Dr. David Wiener spends his days making his patients’ bodies move better. But in his spare time, he couldn’t help noticing Coloradans who needed help with their joints and bones and were not getting the care they needed.
At the grocery store, at the hardware store, on city sidewalks, Wiener told Colorado Public radio, “I’m the guy who follows them around and tries to visualize their X-rays and I think about what I can do to help them, and to me the frustrating thing is a lot of people like that I haven’t been able to help.”
Now the Kaiser Permanente orthopedic surgeon can fix a lot more of them. Wiener estimates one-fifth of his current patients are people like hair salon owner, Waneta Timmerman, who spent years in pain but now have affordable health insurance that lets them get surgery.
“I know I can see patients who I couldn’t see before, and that, to me, is about as good as it gets.”