At 87, a Fort Lauderdale Golfer Gets His Swing Back After Reverse Shoulder Replacement

At 87 years old, Girard “Jerry” Beaulieu isn’t slowing down. A golf and pickleball fan, he still loves nothing more than getting out on the course with his son and grandson. So, when his club started to be too painful to swing in August 2025, Beaulieu knew the all too familiar signs of a joint needing to be replaced.

The Fort Lauderdale resident is no stranger to surgery, having had both knees and hips replaced before, and being an avid sports enthusiast, he knew it was time to go through the process again.

The pain became constant, waking him up in the middle of the night and limiting even simple movements. On the golf course, he could no longer take a full swing. Reaching overhead to hit a pickleball shot became so painful that, as he put it, “I would literally scream. Not figuratively, literally. That’s how bad it hurt.”

After getting a quick check at the doctor’s office, he was told his shoulder was deteriorated.

“I didn’t have an injury or accident, just ‘worn out parts,’ I call it,” Beaulieu joked.

Rather than wait, he immediately turned to David Nigen, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine with the Broward Health Physician Group, and had a right reverse total shoulder arthroplasty surgery at Broward Health Imperial Point.

“Jerry’s shoulder no longer had working rotator cuff tendons due to chronic tears and severe bone on bone arthritis, which is why we decided on the reverse shoulder replacement versus the anatomic total shoulder,” said Dr. Nigen. “The goal was to fully restore his mobility, especially knowing that he lives such an active lifestyle.”

In a reverse shoulder replacement, the positions of the metal ball and socket are switched. The metal ball is attached to the glenoid, which is the shoulder socket, while the socket is placed on the proximal humerus, the ball of the shoulder. This configuration allows the patient to rely on the deltoid muscle of the shoulder to move the arm, bypassing the damaged or nonfunctioning rotator cuff.

Following doctor’s orders made all the difference in Beaulieu’s recovery. He kept his arm iced and elevated in a sling, exactly as instructed, and within four weeks he was already regaining motion and started physical therapy 1 week after surgery.

About five months post-op, Beaulieu was back to nearly full range of motion.

The young-at-heart senior is grateful to Dr. Nigen and the Broward Health care team for giving him back his quality of life.

“Dr. Nigen is not only a great surgeon, but he’s also a very considerate, thoughtful person,” said Beaulieu, who has already recommended Dr. Nigen to several friends needing their own surgeries.

For anyone facing a similar decision, his advice is simple: don’t wait.

“I’m a great believer in getting it done,” he said. “A lot of people have trepidation about doing stuff like that, and I think that’s silly. The technology today is so good, and the doctors are so good. There’s no reason to live in pain.”

Today, just a little over a year later, Beaulieu is back to doing what he loves: playing golf with his son and grandson, volleying on the pickleball court with his friends and even enjoying a game of Rock Band on his PlayStation 5, all pain free.

To learn more about orthopedic care visit BrowardHealth.org/Orthopedics.