Neurosurgery Patient Stories
October 21, 2022
UAMS Neurosurgeon Uses Brain-Mapping Software, Laser Ablation to Safely Destroy Mom’s Brain Tumor
| Just three months after giving birth to her daughter, Ashley James learned that a brain tumor she’d had removed nearly two years earlier had returned. Back in October 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pine Bluff native was living in Cleveland, Ohio, when she experienced a severe headache and pain behind…
September 23, 2022
Implant Offers UAMS Patient Relief from Painful Diabetic Neuropathy
Herb Lair got an upgrade to his quality of life after having a device implanted in his spinal cord at UAMS. Lair, 78, suffered from painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) for about two years until he had the procedure in June 2022. Even after major back surgery and different treatment therapies, Lair had trouble walking long…
November 26, 2021
UAMS Testing ‘Big Advance’ in Spinal Cord Stimulation; First Arkansas Participant Now Pain Free
Cornelia Ann Smith’s severe chronic back pain disappeared almost as soon as the experimental spinal cord stimulator was activated in a procedure at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). “I realized the device was helping me immediately,” the Calico Rock, Ark., resident said. Then, back home, it really began to sink in. “I…
May 28, 2021
Minimally Invasive Brain Tumor Removal Gives Morrilton Grandmother ‘a Second Chance’
Mary Harris enjoys traveling with her daughters and granddaughters, and the family looks forward to their trips three times a year. And though the pandemic caused them to postpone for a while, they are ready to resume with a trip to Branson in June. In 2016, Harris began having a continued cough and constant bronchitis….
March 19, 2021
UAMS Neurosurgeon Performs State’s First Deep Brain Stimulation for Epilepsy
The UAMS Epilepsy Center is the first in Arkansas to perform deep brain stimulation surgery as a treatment for epilepsy. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for epilepsy is designed to help manage seizures in patients who have not responded to medication. DBS, which is a type of neuromodulation, has been used primarily for patients with movement…
July 27, 2020
San Francisco Woman Finds Help for Complex Surgery
Claudia Bressie’s tumor was non-cancerous, but it was aggressive and dangerous. Months of consultations at top universities and treatments proved ineffective for the San Francisco woman, until her journey brought her to UAMS. It began in 2017 when Bressie started having swelling, popping and clicking around her jaw. The discomfort grew from there to what…
May 13, 2020
Spinal Cord Stimulator Improves Chronic Pain 95%
The first thing Michael Foote, 48, can remember is the pain. One second, he was reaching to re-arrange cargo in the back of his truck while stopped under an overpass during a rainstorm, his wife holding onto his beltloop to steady him. The next thing he knew, he was rolling across concrete in incredible pain….
February 11, 2020
Car Crash Leads to Discovery of Brain Tumor, Now in Remission
Matthew Koshinski believes the car crash he was in two years ago saved his life. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2018, he wasn’t feeling his best. But the 22-year-old supervisor at UPS went in to work anyway. “I didn’t think much of it. I just thought I’d push through it.” He ended up leaving…
October 7, 2019
UAMS Pain Study Device Gets Amputee off the Couch
A year ago, Jared Jackson, 40, was spending a lot of time sitting or lying around. But not because he was lazy; his right leg had been amputated below the knee in 2011, and the pain was almost too much to take. In fact, sometimes he passed out. “My pain started about a month after…
April 29, 2019
Woman Relaxed for First Time in Years After Complex Spine Surgery
Last fall, just getting out of a chair and walking from one room to the next was a labored and painful experience for Denise Frerichs. The pain was excruciating and it ran down from her back to her legs. “The pain started about two years ago. At first I thought it would get better. I…
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