Saturday, May 10, 2008

19 yo Stuart's Scoliosis Surgery: When can you get out of bed after surgery?

Stuart just finished up his exams at college, and came in to get his scoliosis fixed the next day.
I performed his surgery as usual over at Duke Raleigh Hospital next to Hey Clinic, in North Raleigh.
Our new high tech laminar flow operating room was used, with “Moon Suits”, and the latest infection prevention technologies.
His surgery took 2 hrs 20 minutes, and got an excellent correction.
Subcuticular skin closure was performed, which gives an excellent cosmetic skin final result.
His evokes sensory and motor evoked potentials were normal throughout surgery.
His blood loss was under 700 cc, and most of this blood was given back to him as cell saver.
He was comfortable and awake in recovery room, and was reunited with his family up on the orthopeadic floor an hour or 2 later.
When I came by to see him about 5 hours after surgery, he wanted to get up and take a walk.
Indeed, he did get up and walked all the way up and down the hall, and “hung out” at the nurses’s station for a while before heading back to bed.
He stayed 2 nights in the hospital, and went home doing very well.

Stuart and his parents actually watched one of my scoliosis surgery videos before surgery, and actually found it very comforting, so they understood the entire process.

Get well, soon Stuart, and enjoy your summer with your new shape!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
Raleigh NC  USA
http://www.heyclinic.com

1 comment:

semorgan said...

This is Stuart. I just wanted to say that the care and treatment that I was given at Duke Raleigh Hospital was far beyond any treatment I had ever Imagined, from the nurses to the therapists it was all fantastic. Thank you so much Dr. Hey for what you did for my back and for my life. I cannot wait to get back to my regular self again! I'm doing great at home, living pretty much a normal life on my own, I'm even off the pain med. one week after surgery. I would like to thank everyone at the Hey Clinic who played a part in this and especially Dr. Hey for his time and concern for me as a person and not just as another patient.

stuart