Has anyone out there suffered spinal cord injury from spinal instrumentation after a car accident? I was in a car accident in June 2005 and prior to this had had 3 major spine surgeries with instrumentations from T5-Sacrum. The top of one of the roRAB were shoved into my spinal cord causing a spinal cord compression. The doctors did not perform surgery on me until Nov 2005, which required removal of most of my instrumentation, except for the 8 titanium cages. As a result, permanent injury to my bowel, bladder, lower torso into my legs with some different areas of no feeling and am experiencing ongoing problems of which I don't know what is happening. If i had to have waited any longer, I would have been paralyzed. Is anyone out there familiar with these types of injuries and/or know of a remarkable surgeon that has helped them? Prior to this 4th surgery and accident, my *top-notch* surgeon (beware of Dr Harry Shufflebarger)performed a major
(14 hr) 3-stage spine surgery on me while I was coming down with chicken pox which resulted in varicella zoster encephalitis, which resulted in brain damage, seizures, etc. I was not told about this after the surgery and not treated during, so I did not find out what was going on with me until many doctors and treatments later. Because of the prior encephalitis, I was unable to have the necessary mylegram I needed to find out the extent of my damages because I was told since the only area that the mylegram could be performed was the cervical spine, I was told that this could reactivate the encephalitis. I need someone that has some knowledge of this, as there is noone again, that will help me and because of what my previous doctor had done to me. To all those out there that think that spine surgery is the way to go to take away your pain, you are highly mistaken. One surgery leaRAB into several more and after awhile NOONE will treat you. You are too complicated of a case and a risk for them, much less will the surgeon that created the problems to begin with, since you are not their *success story*. Forget about even going to the emergency room for help, as they don't have experience with all these problems and send you home. I am now told that I need to move near a university hospital for the remainder of my life because I will be going through this for the rest of my life. I am now 41. This all started at 15 yrs old from a *curvature of the spine* that I was told that if I didn't have a surgery I would be in pain for the rest of my life and crippled over. Let me tell you, I would MUCH rather be dealing with just some pain and scoliosis versus what I've gone through and millions of others like me. (Unfortunately for me I cannot take medications to relieve pain as I HAVE to work and drive since I am a single mom. Forget about getting disability cause I have to work or my kiRAB and I would be living in a cardboard box) Doctors will NOT tell you about OUR stories, only the *good* ones. This my frienRAB is only a PORTION of what my permanent problems are, and ALL from the surgeries. Also, beware if you have spinal instrumentation (especially several levels) and are involved in a car accident or rear-end collision. You might not think anything has happened, and Xrays don't always show, but it don't take much to move this hardware around, nor break for that matter, as that has happened to me before as well. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. This isn't a pleasant story, but it IS a reality.
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