Introduction to the Accident
As Angel Bueno and the rest of the demolition crew cut through a bank vault to make it easier to maneuver, the door began to slip. Soon, his left leg was pinned beneath hundreds of pounds of metal. “I saw it coming, but it was already too late for me to react,” the 25-year-old said, recalling the September accident. “You’d think I would be screaming, but it was such a shock.” Men from Bueno’s construction crew pulled him out from under the door and called 911. He was loaded into an ambulance and rushed to an emergency room near the site in Libertyville.
Initial Response and Injury Assessment
Bueno’s girlfriend, Julissa Villegas, left work and hurried to Advocate Condell Medical Center. There, she found her boyfriend, pale and in pain, with an open wound on his left side. His leg had been completely crushed by the door, tearing three of the four major ligaments in his knee, a rare and challenging injury. Bueno, a Franklin Park resident who has been working in construction since he graduated from high school, and Villegas were both wrought with fear, wondering what this would mean for Bueno’s life. They worried he would never be able to walk again or play with his dog or return to his construction job.
Angel Bueno and girlfriend, Julissa Villegas, pose for a portrait at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. Bueno is recovering from a rare knee surgery.
Talia Sprague/for the Sun-Times
Emergency Response and Initial Surgery
“In my head I was like, ‘What’s gonna happen?’” Bueno said. “It was just devastating to not know if I would go back or not.” It would take months, several doctors and an extremely challenging surgery to get answers to those questions. Tearing multiple ligaments at once is considered a rare injury and typically requires multiple surgeries. But first, emergency doctors and trauma surgeons were occupied with saving Bueno’s life. He had youth and health on his side, Bueno’s doctors said, but there are always concerns in accidents like this. “What I’m trying to do is save the patient’s life,” said Dr. Eric de la Cruz, a trauma surgeon at Advocate. “Any time I have to operate, I know there’s a risk of finding something significant that can truly change the patient’s life.”
Complex Injury and Surgical Challenge
Bueno was placed in the intensive care unit and began having pain in his abdomen. Doctors determined Bueno’s intestinal matter was leaking from a hole in his bowel, and Bueno was at risk of sepsis, a condition that could turn fatal if left untreated. De la Cruz took Bueno to surgery, where he found an intestine that appeared “snapped in half.” He repaired the intestine and cleared the abdomen of intestinal matter to avoid infection. But the next hurdle was a big one — Bueno’s wrecked knee. “The good news is, when people are worried about the orthopedic injuries, that means I’ve done my job,” de la Cruz said.
Rare Orthopedic Surgery
Dr. Paul Metzger, an orthopedic surgeon, was brought onto Bueno’s case to decide how to treat the knee. Tearing multiple ligaments at one time is a rare injury, Metzger said, and typically, repairing all three ligaments would take place in separate surgeries.
Dr. Paul Metzger, of Advocate Condell Medical Center, discusses performing a rare orthopedic surgery on Angel Bueno, who tore three knee ligaments after a bank vault door fell on him.
Talia Sprague/for the Sun-Times
Surgical Procedure and Recovery
Eager to get Bueno back on his feet, Metzger opted for one minimally invasive procedure instead of the usual multiple surgeries. He had both the required technology and past experience with similar, if less extreme, ligament tears. Metzger used arthroscopic and fluoroscopic techniques, meaning he used a tiny camera and X-ray imaging during the surgery to minimize scars and disruption to the body. “Because it’s so rare, it takes a lot of experience with those types of surgeries that maybe weren’t as extensive as Angel’s surgery,” Metzger said. “I would only do it in one stage if I could do it safely.”
Post-Surgery and Rehabilitation
About two months after the accident, Bueno had surgery on his knee. “I was, frankly, ready for it,” Bueno said. “‘Let’s get this over with,’ that’s pretty much what was running through my head. I didn’t want to go into surgery with a depressive state of mind. I was scared, but I didn’t want to put
