A unique operation saved an American teen from a hump and saved his life.

John Sarcona was at a baseball game when his mother Joann found his bloodied t-shirts in a laundry basket. His bedding was also in the blood, and the woman realized that something very bad was going on with her son, writes CNN.

John before and after surgery
Photo: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / CNN Video Screenshot

John, who is now 19 years old, was diagnosed with an extreme case of scoliosis and kyphosis at 5. The guy underwent 16 operations, during which doctors put metal implants along his spine to support his back as he grew up.

When the 16-year-old boy returned home after his mother noticed bloody clothes, Joann calmly asked: "John, can you take off your shirt?"

What she saw still haunts her in terrible dreams: metal rods protruded from the back of her son. They broke before, requiring additional operations for repair, but now everything was different.

“They looked like cysts and tumors on John’s back,” the woman recalls.

In the next few weeks, John returned to the hospital for the 17 operation to finally remove the metal implants, after which the guy went through a very difficult rehabilitation.

“Every 15 minutes the nurses asked John to take a deep breath, but he told them: “I can’t, it hurts.” How can I maintain 99% oxygen levels if I’m dying?,” said the guy’s mother.

“I can’t do this anymore,” John told his mom, tearing off the pulse oximeter. - I want to go home."

Lifelong battle

When he was 6 years old, John was told to wear a dorsal brace for 22 hours a day, taking it off only for trips to the shower.

His mother decorated the bracket with stickers, and his classmates wrote their names on it. But even in elementary school, John felt uncomfortable: “I didn’t want to be close to my friends with this thing on my back. It was very annoying. ”

Scoliosis, a sideways curvature of the spine, affects 2% to 3% of the population, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Kyphosis is a curvature of the spine in the upper back that causes a hump to appear. Installation of a brace (a device for correcting the spine) is used to treat both types of curvatures.

But for all its inconveniences, the brace did not help much the deteriorating state of John’s spine. According to the doctors, he needed an operation, and soon metal rods were inserted into his back. Every six months, John returned to the hospital to lengthen the rods as his spine grew.

But after the 17 operations, the rods were removed, and John’s condition was just as bad as before.

“It’s important to understand that surgery can do a lot. But surgery cannot cure everything. It is not always the child's, doctor's or patient's fault if treatment fails,” said Dr. Jeffrey Wang, president of the North American Spine Society and co-director of the USC Spine Center.

Surgeon John, who was unable to heal him, advised the patient to contact Lawrence Lenk, chief surgeon at the Daniel and Jane Och Spine Hospital and former president of the Scoliosis Research Society.

“Part of my practice is to take care of those that other people can’t take care of,” Lenke said.

Loss of faith in surgeons

John's condition continued to deteriorate after the rod was removed, a month later the family went to New York to Lenka.

Joanne was afraid of any additional procedures. Her son underwent so many operations that the doctors had when sewing incisions on his back after the next interventions.

“She was terrified of any surgery because none of them seemed to work. She told me bluntly: “I trusted surgeons for so long. How can I trust you? — Wenke told about his mother’s condition.

But there was simply no other choice - the operation had to be done. John's kyphosis was so severe that it affected his ability to breathe, with his lungs operating at only 22% of their capacity.

He needed surgery, but Lenka's proposal was risky - if something went wrong, John could be paralyzed for life.

It was an operation called a vertebral column resection—Lenke was going to split John's spine into different sections, remove two vertebrae at the very center of the severe kyphosis, and then straighten the spine, bringing all the sections together.

“This works well,” Lenke explained, “but the problem is that we have to work with the spine around the spinal cord, and this is dangerous.”

Joan was terrified, but John had few options, if not to have surgery, the guy could soon suffocate, as the curved spine could completely deprive his lungs of his ability to breathe.

New life

Operation was long and painful. It lasted 13 hours, but not everything went according to plan.

“We constantly checked the electrical activity, and halfway through the spinal extension, the spinal cord activity disappeared,” the doctor said.

This is not unique, it happens around 30% of such operations, but, as the doctor said, “for an hour, John was technically paralyzed.”

As a result, the operation was completed successfully and without complications.

The upper part of John’s spine was concave forward 120 degrees before the operation, which made it very difficult for him to stand upright and perform daily tasks, such as climbing stairs.

John admitted that after the operation his body had changed a lot, the center of gravity had changed, he could barely walk.

This was his 18-i operation, but this time everything changed.

“This is a chance for a new life. I felt stronger with every step,” John said.

A year after the operation, he graduated from high school. John is now seven inches (18 cm) taller and regularly plays basketball and golf, which was simply impossible before the operation. He is currently a student at Nassau College on Long Island.

He is not sure exactly what he wants to do when he graduates, but John dreams of becoming a doctor to help people who find themselves, like him, in difficult situations.

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