Patient Stories
Virginia Snyder is no stranger to living in pain. "Anyone who's experienced chronic pain knows it affects you at every level. It affects your physical activity, your mental status and your emotions. It can become very incapacitating."
"I had back surgery a number of years ago at another hospital. After you have surgery, you have a lot of scar tissue and it makes any subsequent surgery more challenging. But at Mercy, I had a phenomenal experience. I woke up in the recovery room and the constant, radiating pain in my leg was gone. It never returned."
"Knowing that I had the Mercy neurosurgery team dedicated to providing me with the best possible outcome and a team that genuinely cared for me was very comforting. In the end, I have a better outcome than I ever could have imagined. It really is beyond what I ever thought possible going into the surgery."
One day last summer, Kevin awoke in incredible pain. "I had pain in my neck, shoulder, back and arm. I'm a coach and I'm very active so I thought I had just pulled a muscle. But the pain wouldn't subside, no matter what I tried."
After months of living in agony, Kevin tried physical therapy to relieve his pain. When his symptoms still weren't under control, Kevin and his neosurgeon, Christopher Sturm, M.D., F.A.C.S., decided surgery was his best option. "When I got out of surgery, the first thing I did was lift up my arms, just like an eagle spreading its wings. For the first time in months, I could lift my arms and there was no pain. It was such an awesome feeling."
"Today, I feel like myself again. I'm back on the sidelines coaching my teams and I feel great. Not a day goes by that I don't tell someone about my incredible experience at the neurosurgery department at Mercy."
