Patient Perspective

Patient Perspective

Mary Jane Love* is a very healthy 69 year old woman who couldn’t believe what was happening to her last June. “I am generally always on the go”, states Miss. Love, “I really was not expecting what happen”. She began to have pain into her legs and feet but she also had a loss of sensation in her lower abdominal area and both her legs were also numb. “I was starting to get frighten because I knew this was serious, but I wasn’t prepared for what they told me was wrong”, related Miss Love.

She first saw her local neurosurgeon and had a MRI, which showed a tumor within the spinal cord at the level of T5. This area of the cord controls the leg and bladder and bowel function. She was told that surgery was required and was scheduled to have surgery to remove the tumor in the next several weeks. “I knew it had to be done, but I was afraid I may wake up paralyzed”, stated Miss. Love. “Things changed quickly, however, after I fell in early July”, said Miss Love, “I knew I couldn’t wait any longer because I couldn’t walk at all after the fall.”

She was then brought in as an emergency and Dr. El Kadi preformed a thoracic laminectomy at levels T4-6 and removed the intradural benign tumor (meningioma) at T5. “The surgery went well but the spinal cord was significantly compressed by the tumor, stated Dr. El Kadi, but we remained guardedly optimistic, but we were pleasantly surprised with her tremendous improvement the day after surgery.” Miss. Love also had retained normal bowel and bladder function and was discharged to a rehab center four days after surgery to help her improve her balance.

“I now have my life back,” stated Miss. Love, I have recently traveled to Washington, DC and walked the Smithsonian from end to end. My friends now call me the miracle patient, because most never thought I would walk again. I am very grateful to Dr. El Kadi and his team. He did a super job”

Miss. Love’s results are usual of this operation. Each patient’s recovery differs and depends on many factors. Age, sex, type and amount of disability and length of symptoms all play a role in the recovery process. Our goal in all cases is to allow the patient to resume all the activities they did prior to your injury whenever possible.

*Miss. Love has signed a released to permit the release of this personal information. We will not disclose any information unless the parties involved agree in writing. Miss. Love chose to permit this information because of her gratitude to Dr. El Kadi and his staff.

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Last Updated: January 15, 2003