Dignity Health | St. Rose Dominican | Reach | Winter 2019

4 StRoseHospitals.org Setting things straight A complex surgery case calls for persistence, precision, and innovation More than a decade ago , when Alejandro Noriega was in the seventh grade, he fell while playing soccer and broke both bones in his left forearm. He was in a cast for three months, but the bones did not heal correctly. They were crooked—and Alejandro’s arm was significantly deformed. “You could actually feel where the bones overlapped in my arm, and if I bumped it on something or got hit on that spot, it was really painful,” Alejandro says. “The injury also made me very self-conscious. I never wore short-sleeved shirts.” Facing a complicated challenge In March 2018, Alejandro, now 25 years old, saw Lawrence Huff, MD, a licensed orthopedic surgeon who performs surgeries at Dignity Health–St. Rose Dominican’s San Martín Campus. Dr. Huff, a Las Vegas native and former professional baseball player, specializes in complex surgeries of the shoulders and arms.