{"id":149230,"date":"2026-05-07T22:15:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T02:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=149230"},"modified":"2026-05-07T22:15:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T02:15:57","slug":"new-knee-and-new-lease-on-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=149230","title":{"rendered":"New Knee and New Lease on Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo caption:\u00a0<\/strong>Jennifer Cooke with her grandchild.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Jennifer Cooke endured years of knee pain that made even basic tasks difficult. She called them the \u201csilly things,\u201d like bending over, climbing stairs, or simply walking around the block.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize that those silly things mean a lot,\u201d Cooke said.<\/p>\n

Now, the 53-year-old Bethlehem resident lives life full of those silly things. Through a multi-platform care plan guided by her St. Luke\u2019s Health Network team, Cooke has lost 120 pounds and walks better than ever with a new right knee. She went hiking through Hawaii and can twirl her grandchildren, who inspired Cooke to transform herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m healthy,\u201d said Cooke, who works at Moravian Academy\u2019s Bethlehem campus. \u201cI have never been this thin and fit in my life. Not to be in pain constantly is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooke had spent much of her life in pain. Having played softball and skied in her youth, Cooke developed knee problems that required four surgeries, two for a torn meniscus. The pain grew substantially in her 40s, but she delayed another procedure through cortisone shots. But when her grandchildren were born, Cooke had new motivation. She needed to explore options to fix her knee.<\/p>\n

First, that required weight loss. Cooke went to the St. Luke\u2019s Weight Management Center in Phillipsburg, where she underwent weight-loss surgery in 2022. She initially lost about 30 pounds before having knee replacement surgery in May 2024.<\/p>\n

Dr. Adam Sadler<\/a>, an orthopedic surgeon at\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s Orthopedic Care<\/a>\u00a0in Phillipsburg, executed the surgery using an advanced robotic-assisted system. The technology helps doctors perform such procedures with higher precision and improves outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cJennifer came into surgery with a clear vision for her future, and she brought that same determination into her recovery,\u201d said Dr. Sadler. \u201cWe tailored her treatment plan to give her the best foundation possible and watching her regain strength and confidence has been incredibly inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the successful surgery, Cooke began putting her new knee through rehab in May 2024. It was initially difficult and frustrating because she couldn\u2019t get her quadriceps to fire properly.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Cooke\u2019s rehab team pointed her forward.\u00a0Thomas (Tom) Sadler, DPT<\/a>, at\u00a0Physical Therapy at St. Luke\u2019s<\/a>, helped Cooke to overcome that initial roadblock. Within two weeks, her quadriceps and knee were synchronized, and Cooke was getting stronger. By July, she had successfully completed physical therapy and felt better than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kept me calm and kept me going,\u201d Cooke said of Thomas Sadler. \u201cOnce we got the quadriceps going, therapy went quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJennifer faced some challenges early on, but her determination was relentless,\u201d said Sadler (Tom). \u201cIt was a difficult climb initially however once her quadriceps engaged, her strength improved, her endurance took off, and confidence soared.\u00a0 She was quite successful with performing any intervention given to her after that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she wasn\u2019t finished there. Cooke had found that her weight-loss progression stalled and collaborated with her team at St. Luke\u2019s Weight Management Center to explore further options. They found a metabolic issue that prevented Cooke from losing further weight. She began taking a low-dose GLP-1 in early 2025 and has lost an additional 90 pounds. Cooke continues her weight-loss journey with St. Luke\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The comprehensive care Looke received is a testament to St. Luke\u2019s overall excellence. This past fall, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke\u2019s #1 \u2013 ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic, two of the nation\u2019s most prestigious institutions \u2013 as the nation\u2019s top health system for quality, safety, and patient experience. This objective recognition, based on public data reported to the government, reaffirmed St. Luke\u2019s preeminent position among the leading health systems in the country.<\/p>\n

Before Cooke\u2019s weight loss and knee replacement, pain governed her life. At Moravian Academy\u2019s Bethlehem campus, she labored to climb a flight of stairs. On a trip to Walt Disney World before the surgery, Cooke returned to her hotel room in tears with a leg swollen from hip to ankle.<\/p>\n

Now, Cooke doesn\u2019t flinch when going upstairs at work. During that Hawaii trip, Cooke and her husband hiked trails to waterfalls, which she never could have done before. Most important, Cooke takes her grandchildren on walks around St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus and doesn\u2019t need a break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can chase my grandkids,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is truly what pushed me to go further and figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872, St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley\u2019s biggest employer.<\/p>\n

The Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest continuously operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550+ residents and fellows.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke\u2019s #1 \u2013 ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic, two of the nation\u2019s most prestigious institutions \u2013 as the nation\u2019s top health system for quality, safety and patient experience. This objective recognition, based on public data reported to the government, reaffirms St. Luke\u2019s preeminent position as THE BEST OF THE BEST among the most respected health care systems in the United States.<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s has been named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World\u2019s Best Hospital. It is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. In 2025, the Network earned straight A\u2019s from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 12 years in a row, including in 2021 when its flagship University Hospital was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo caption:\u00a0Jennifer Cooke with her grandchild. Jennifer Cooke endured years of knee pain that made even basic tasks difficult. She called them the \u201csilly things,\u201d like bending over, climbing stairs, … Continue reading New Knee and New Lease on Life<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Jennifer-Cooke.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149232,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149230\/revisions\/149232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/149231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}