Dr. James McHone and his team prepare to perform arthroscopic surgery on Rick Noble’s knee.

Rick Noble, age 56, has been dealing with severe knee pain for years. In his youth, he was a serious runner, and all those years of abuse permanently damaged the cartilage of his right knee.

Over the past two years, Noble has undergone two arthroscopic procedures on his knee. Each procedure was only a temporary fix because he still had severe knee pain and limited mobility. That is why he and his ortho-paedic physician, Dr. James McHone of Northeast Orthopaedics, decided total knee replacement surgery was his best option for full recovery.

On October 11, 2004, Rick Noble checked in to Providence Northeast Hospital for surgery. Around 10:15 am, Noble was brought into the operating room and put under general anesthesia. Then, the medical team started making surgery preparations. They made a tourniquet and swabbed his entire leg with an antiseptic.

At 10:46 am, Dr. McHone started the surgery with an approximately six–inch incision in Noble’s right knee. He shaved Noble’s leg bones so the prosthesis would fit properly.

Once the bones were precisely cut down, Dr. McHone began fitting the bottom portion of the prosthesis into the shinbone or tibia. The tibial component looks somewhat like a golf tee. The bottom part of the tibial component is metal, and the top of it is made of a hard plastic that simulates real cartilage.