Published: October 13, 2025
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Art is Max Hassan’s passion.
Ever since he was a child, he’s loved to draw. The pencil — to him — fit like a glove in his hand, as he carefully crafted the intricacies of the human face, body and emotion. To him, it came naturally.
“I love figures, the movements of the body,” Max said. “I love people’s faces showing emotion. And I like something that makes you think — somebody who is crying, or sad, or happy, or anything. I like nature, don’t get me wrong, but I think it’s just plain beautiful. People are much more complex.”
Max moved to Kentucky from his home country of Egypt nearly 30 years ago. Ever since, he’s been a businessman. His financial ventures have spanned multiple projects across the Louisville area.
For the most part, his busy lifestyle forced him to put down his pencil. But a few years ago, he found his passion once again and created a studio in his home to live it out. It gave him an outlet and a newfound purpose. Max began to paint, focusing solely on portraits.
Though feeding his soul, putting brush back to canvas began withering Max’s hands.
“To paint, you usually need a big hand,” Max said. “And I don’t have a big hand, so that’s part of the problem. But I’ve had problems with it for the last three or four years, since I’ve really started drawing seriously. And I had a lot of pain in my hand, because I used it constantly.”
Max was introduced to Antony Hazel, M.D., orthopedic hand surgeon at Norton Arm & Hand Institute, and the two discussed his options.
Dr. Hazel diagnosed Max with thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) arthritis, meaning Max had lost cartilage in the joint that connects the base of the thumb to his wrist. It’s very painful, because the cartilage helps cushion the joint and allows the hand to move smoothly. Max and Dr. Hazel tried steroid injections with the hope they could keep the pain at bay. They worked for a time, but eventually, both doctor and patient knew they would need to find a more permanent fix.
“His arthritis was terrible,” Dr. Hazel said. “He was probably in the top five of worst cases of arthritis I’ve seen. The joint was already in pretty bad shape, so there’s nothing you can do to salvage that. He wanted to get back to a high level of functioning and maintain his mobility. That’s why doing a fusion or something like that wouldn’t have been ideal for him, because the level of dexterity he needed and wanted.”
“We tried the shots, and I was wearing gloves,” Max said. “I used to wear those all the time, like every day, because they would allow me to use my hands and allow me to relax. But eventually [Dr. Hazel] told me that to really fix it, I will need the surgery.”
In March 2024, Dr. Hazel performed a successful thumb CMC implant arthroplasty. More simply, a thumb joint replacement surgery. In the procedure, he replaced Max’s damaged, arthritic CMC joint at the base of his thumb with a two-piece, cobalt implant. Unlike with a traditional arthroplasty, the implant helps restore the length of the patient’s thumb and maintain strength. The implant also has been shown to relieve pain and restore movement and function.
Dr. Hazel has been performing this specific surgery since 2017 and has now completed more than 60 cases. He is the only surgeon in the region actively performing the thumb implant replacement.
“You never try to do something for the sake of being novel,” Dr. Hazel said. “I just didn’t think the other solution for thumb arthritis surgery worked that well, because people couldn’t get back to what they used to be able to. I started using the implant as an alternative. I wanted patients to regain their lost function. Little did I know, nobody else was really doing the procedure in the area. So, it’s great to give people that specialized level of car.”
Max’s surgery went as expected, and he was back with brush in hand in a matter of months — back to painting portraits like he’d done years before. And for his next project, Max wanted to do something for the surgeon who made it possible.
At a postoperative appointment, he presented Dr. Hazel with a portrait of the surgeon as a small token of gratitude for the person who brushed away years’ worth of pain.
“I didn’t even know that’s what he did until after surgery,” Dr. Hazel said. “But it was very humbling, because sometimes patients and come in and out of your life, and you don’t get to see what they do. And any time you have that chance to see it, that’s amazing. And even more, I have a piece of it to keep for myself. That’s something that doesn’t happen very often. Any time you get something made for you … that’s special.”
“I told him I wanted to show appreciation for what he did for my hand,” Max said. “And I like for people to see themselves the way I see them. He’s a very good doctor, and it was worth my time to give him something back.”