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Patient Care: The Bottom Line
When Marguerite Burke and Karen Welinsky danced at the wedding of Karen's daughter - who is also Marguerite's godchild - it was more than just a case of two dear friends celebrating a special occasion.
Friends for over 30 years, both women had suffered from excruciating back pain that had disrupted their personal and professional lives.
Marguerite, a school nurse living in northern New Jersey, was in terrible pain as a result of spinal stenosis - a narrowing of the spinal column which compresses the nerves - and bulging discs. She had already endured two spinal surgeries when the pain again flared.
"I had pain running from the left flank down my leg," she recalls. "It felt like the snapping of a rubber band in my calf. I had tingling in my feet. I couldn't do much walking and I was uncomfortable at work. I couldn't even get up to change the TV station."
Physical therapy and swimming did not help. When she was told that her spinal problem could eventually affect bowel and bladder control, she realized she could no longer put off the inevitable. She would again need surgery.
Her physician recommended Dr. Cammisa, who concurred with the assessment. Dr. Cammisa performed a spinal fusion using a state-of-the-art stereotactic computer-assisted system to improve the accuracy of the instrumention placed in Marguerite's spine.
"I was on top of the world [after the surgery]," says Marguerite. "I could get into the car without lifting my leg again. I could work in the garden. I even asked Dr. Cammisa if I could roller blade. I had my life back."
Coincidentally, while Marguerite was regaining her life, Karen was living through her own private hell. A self-employed artist living near Boston, she had undergone eight spinal surgeries.
"I was a mess, confined to a wheelchair and taking pain medication," she says. "After one surgery, I ended up with a serious infection and the doctors had to remove all the hardware to control it. They said they had never seen anything like it."
Scheduled for surgery again at a Boston hospital, she had a premonition. She left the hospital and, on Marguerite's advice, flew to New York to see Dr. Cammisa. "My husband was skeptical. But the minute we met Dr. Cammisa, we both knew he'd be the one to fix me."
Fusions were performed on Karen from both the front and back in separate surgeries. Within a short time, she was on her feet and feeling no pain for the first time in years.
"I may be a walking miracle, but what are the odds of two close friends, both in terrible pain and living hundreds of miles apart, getting fixed by the same doctor?"
After the surgery, Karen's major project was sewing the gown her daughter Robin would wear on her wedding day. It turned out to be a very special day indeed, as the old friends danced with tears of joy in their eyes - for both Robin and themselves.
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