Giving Mobility Back

Stephen's Story

Driving up to the hospital in the winter, there it is—a magical, magnificent shelter in the forest. Outside, its light glows. Within, the healing happens.

I think of Dr. Karch every day. With every step, I thank him.

-Stephen Keep Mills

Santa Monica resident Stephen Keep Mills knew he needed hip surgery for years. He was limping, he says, and “I’d put it off for far too long, relying on cortisone shots to get by. It was at the point where it was impacting my quality of my life.”

He had finally gotten on the schedule with a surgeon in Los Angeles—even completed his pre-op paperwork—when some Mammoth friends recommended he talk to Dr. Mike Karch at Mammoth Hospital orthopedics. He scheduled a consultation.

“Two seconds in, I knew he was it,” says Stephen of Dr. Karch. “He gives you the sense there’s nothing he can’t fix. 

Stephen, a director and filmmaker, had an upcoming festival where a film he had just completed was being featured. “Dr. Karch said, ‘We’re going to get you to that festival!’” Stephen recalls, “and scheduled me for surgery.”

Dr. Karch’s confidence, coupled with the fact that Stephen and his wife own a condominium in Mammoth where he could recover, sealed the deal. “That, and the fact that the Mammoth Hospital Physical Therapy department is sensational, made it an easy choice.”

Stephen’s hip surgery was in January 2020. A snowstorm was raging but Dr. Karch made it in to complete the surgery (“I was lucky to get an extra night to recover due to the storm,” Stephen recalls with a smile). “He extended my leg two inches because my hip had ground down. No other doctor would have done that—Dr. Karch saw what needed to be done and did it. Where I came from and where I am now, in terms of hip health, is night and day.”

In December 2024, Stephen gave a gift to the Mammoth Hospital Foundation in honor of Dr. Karch and the other caregivers who gave him his mobility back. He now recommends Mammoth Hospital orthopedics to all his friends.

True to his past as an actor and current career as a writer, Stephen speaks about Mammoth Hospital with a poetic reverence. “Driving up to the hospital in the winter, there it is—a magical, magnificent shelter in the forest. Outside, its light glows. Within, the healing happens.”

Next up for Stephen—knee replacements. “Not that I’m looking forward to it,” says Stephen, “but after my hip surgery, it was great to have something so dreaded turn into something so celebrated.

“I think of Dr. Karch every day. With every step, I thank him.”