Back on track:
Yuma girl undergoes spine surgery for a severe case of scoliosis
AYuma teen recently underwent a surgery that added three inches to her height as well as hope for a brighter future in which she can once again live life as an active young girl.
The surgery was performed by Dr. Hooman M. Melamed, director of Scoliosis at Marina Del Rey Hospital in Los Angeles. According to Melamed, Thielbar’s spine was at a 92-degree curvature due to scoliosis, a sideways curvature of the spine.
“A normal curvature of the spine is anywhere from 0 to 10 degrees,” Melamed said in a phone interview. “Anything after 10 degrees is not normal. Once it gets past 50 degrees in adolescence, it’s a problem.”
Thielbar’s grandmother, Lauri St.Cyr, said Thielbar was diagnosed with juvenile scoliosis when she was seven. She said that Thielbar showed no visible signs of the condition until 2015.
In 2016 when Thielbar was 13, St. Cyr said she turned to Clear Scoliosis (Institute) for treatment. For a year, Theilbar had to be strapped in a chair with about 25 pounds of weight administered to her body
for 30 minutes twice a day.
“This was her life all last year,” St. Cyr said.
Thielbar and her grandmother said the treatment was not working for her, and that the curve in Thielbar’s spine was getting worse. St. Cyr said Thielbar couldn’t sleep, stand or breathe well.
“I couldn’t do extra stuff at school because of my back,” Thielbar said. “Before it was this bad I used to play softball and do horseback riding.”
After seeing Dr. Melamed featured on “The Doctors” TV show, St. Cyr decided to consult with him.
He performed the surgery on Thielbar about two weeks ago without any pay from Theilbar’s family out-of-pocket, since insurance would not cover the whole cost of the surgery. St. Cyr said the family paid almost $20,000 for the previous treatment at Clear Scoliosis, and would have financial difficulty.
In total, the surgery Melamed performed took about 11 hours to complete.
He said the surgery he performed on the Yuma teen was a spinal fusion with the correction of the scoliosis using “instrumentation with rods and screws.” Basically, he said the rods and screws were implanted to straighten her spine.
“The surgery honestly could not have gone any better,” Melamed said. “I was extremely thrilled with it. In three months from now when everything is nicely healed I think this is just going to be a bad nightmare for her. She should have a very positive, productive life.”
A week after surgery, Thielbar sat up straight in her living room, noting that she went from being 4 feet, 11 inches tall to 5 feet, 2 inches tall.
“I feel really good now” she said, smiling.
Thielbar is now 14 years old. She attended Centennial Middle School, though she is now being homeschooled while she heals from surgery.
Melamed stressed that the procedure was extensive for a young girl. For this procedure, her back had to be broken and molded again into place.
“There were a lot of manipulations and maneuvers that needed to be done,” Melamed said.
He noted that if Theilbar had gone to the right specialist just a few years ago, she may have been able to get a less invasive procedure. However, since her spine had progressed to such an intense curvature, he said she needed the spinal fusion to correct it.
Melamed stressed that it is important for parents of children who are suffering from scoliosis to be educated, and that seeking a spine specialist who has a lot of experience and expertise in adolescence and pediatrics is crucial. Opting for surgery, he said, can be a heavy decision that requires a lot of research and consultation.
“Surgery in the wrong hands would be an absolute disaster,” Melamed said. “It can lead to permanent disability. Doing spine surgery is a complicated matter.”
To date, Melamed said he has performed about 200 spinal surgeries on adolescents, and over a 1,000 overall. The procedure he performed on Thielbar has been around since the 1970s, he said, noting that it has been fine tuned since then.
He is a board certified orthopedic spine surgeon. Melamed graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.S. in neuroscience.
Later, he attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, his biography showed. He completed his residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Orthopedic Surgery.