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A busted ankle threatened to end Miami tennis legend Jane Forman’s playing and coaching days. See how her determination – and a skilled surgeon at Baptist Health Orthopedic Care – helped get her back on the court.

[Transcript]
I always knew I wanted to be a professional tennis player. I started playing tennis when I was six or seven years old, and I just never stopped. You know, people have injuries in their lives, but not career-ending injuries. It's every aspect of my life. And the thought of that ending was a daunting thought. I'm 63 years old, a former touring tennis professional, now tennis coach for the past 34 years. I was, you know, amongst the top 75, top 50 players in the world playing on a show court, playing at center court at Wimbledon, playing at the US Open.

There's something maybe special about Jane. She has a very dynamic soul, active, fun, positive attitude.

It was a mission of mine when I retired from the tour, to stay in good physical condition and physical health. So I was putting a lot of pressure not only on my body, but on my ankles. I always felt there was a weakness in my right ankle.

So if you really just looked at her x-rays, then your immediate response would be, well, this is a bad ankle. She was basically bone on bone.

When you play professionally, you kind of learned to deal with things like this. I saw my own orthopedic, he said, "You need to see a specialist." The first specialist that I went to immediately looked at it without any reservation said, "We need to replace your ankle." And my jaw dropped. I had a little bit of wave of panic. Of course, I was gonna go see another specialist, and he said the same exact thing. Then I decided to do some research on my own. Everybody that I talked to said, "You have to see Dr. San Giovanni."

I saw Jane Foreman back in, I believe, September of 2023.

The most impressive aspect of the team was Dr. San Giovanni's time that he spent. I just felt like I was being taken care of.

No matter what the diagnosis is, in the end, we treat patients. So I had to think of a different solution for her.

I had my surgery at Doctors Hospital on March 12th, 2024.

[Dr. San Giovanni] What I came up with as a solution for her was what's called an osteotomy. You're cutting bone and you're redirecting it.

He was gonna actually save my ankle where the other doctors wanted to replace that joint.

We didn't fuse the ankle, and we didn't do a joint replacement. You're able to keep the mobility of the ankle, and your joint is still your own joint.

The recovery was far better than I anticipated. Baptist Orthopedic Care was very happy with the outcome of how it looked from day one. Actually, I returned to the court quickly. I made it clear that I was not gonna be sitting around.

I think she was on a treadmill running after a couple months, which is almost unheard of.

And now I'm hitting it full force. I think I'm actually on the court double the amount of time than I was before my injury.

You know, she's determined. She's a tough cookie. I think her ankle will hold up for the rest of her career.

When you decide to play tennis and you can play all the way until the end of your days, you have only yourself as an advocate. I am so happy that I took the time to research who the best is. They're out there. Great doctors are out there. I recommend Baptist Health Orthopedic Care every day of the week, and I'll be forever grateful for that because I feel like I got my life back and more.