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Please do not have surgery before investigating our methods and discussing your case with us! X-Ray Showing broken Harrington Rod Scoliosis Surgery: the Untold Truth Scoliosis Correction questions? Email: scoliosiscorrection@gmail.com or call Dr. Hersh: 860-499-0433 or 860-727-8820

Outcomes of Surgical Treatment

Here are a few sample letters from actual persons who underwent surgical intervention for scoliosis correction: the exact wording has been altered to protect the privacy of the individual.

Here is a little background regarding my current adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. I was recently in a car crash which has caused some neck and lower back issues for me. I am currently undergoing physical therapy and some exercises to help strengthen the muscles. It appears from these findings that I have degenerative spinal issues. I am only 39 years old and I would like to slow the progress of the disease and treat the lumbar and thoracic spine scoliosis and ward off any surgeries (since I have already had 3). I am hoping that there is a way that I can get some improvement on the scoliosis that seems to be progressing in the thoracic, lumbar spine and cervical spine. I have been advised that surgery would be the only option for me or live with this condition.

I had the initial Harrington procedure and fifteen months later had to have a Harrington re-instrumentation (the rods were too long so they installed shorter rod on the left side). The third surgery was a replacement of the rods and a fusion repair. I know that there is no more correction for the places where the rods are but I have curvature below the rods that I am hoping to have treated and perhaps corrected.

Here is a letter from a middle aged male with scoliosis:

"I had scoliosis surgery 34 years ago and had a Harrington Rod inserted. During the surgery they took a bone graft from my left hip which they told me would be used to insert the rod. I healed quite well from the surgery.

In recent years I have been plagued by a variety of health problems -- severe chronic fatigue and urinary tract irritability (potentially interstitial cystitis), along with chronic pain in my lower back and, more recently, much pain in my left hip where the bone graft was done. We have traced the chronic fatigue to high heavy metal levels (lead, mercury and copper). The heavy metal levels were determined via a 24 hour urine provocation test which measured the levels in my tissues."

Here is a question from a woman who had the scoliosis surgery:

Dear doctor,
I have had 5 fusions-hooks and screws I believe. I am fused from C1 to L4. Now the curve is progressing and left ribs are almost meeting left hip.

If you have any advice, I would be grateful
Thank you, Claire

Scoliosis Surgery, A Last Resort

Surgery should only be done as a last resort when ALL other options have failed. I recently had a scheduled appointment with a middle aged woman to evaluate and treat her scoliosis. Before her appointment date, she inquired as to whether her insurance would cover her treatment. Upon learning that it might only reimburse her some percent of her care, she cancelled her visit. Interestingly enough, it is not uncommon for insurance companies to pay all or a large part of a very expensive surgical procedure such as the ones mentioned in the above letters. Of course the end result is not always the best result. In fact to assume that insurance reimbursement of a particular procedure or medical service is tantamount to it being the best treatment can be a very costly assumption in terms of your health. Insurance companies are not medical or diagnostic entities. In fact their ultimate goal is to their shareholders not to their policy holders. Just read a daily paper to find stories of insurance companies’ unwillingness to cooperate in the payment of a medical claim, and especially for a non-traditional one at that.

A Letter from a Scoliosis Surgery Patient

Dr Hersh

My name is Bonnie, I'm almost nineteen years old and was operated on
in June 2003 for severe curvature of the spine.

It came on very quickly and by the time I managed to see a specialist I was
told Harrington rod implantation surgery was my only option. It went ahead a
couple of months later. The Cobb angle was 72°, reduced to 30° with surgery.

Having visited your site today, I realize that I was kept in the blue about
many things. No such loss of life expectancy or snapping of the rods were
ever mentioned to me. Nor was the fact that after 22 years my scoliosis
could be back to square one.

What worries me today is that my lower back, an un-fused area, is becoming
more and more painful, and that since 2003 my posture has regressed and my
ribs are becoming more and more deformed. The rib deformity is what worries
me the most; I'm scared it will start to affect my breathing if something
isn't done. What are the pros and cons of rib resection after back surgery?
What do you recommend I do?

I would have liked to be able to ask these questions in person but I live in
Europe, so this is impossible.

Thank you,

Miss Brown

(Name changed to protect identity)

Greetings:
I and my 22 year old daughter were reading your web site. She was diagnosed with severe advanced scoliosis at the age of 12 (her spine was like a question mark). She was born with a club foot and at the age of 11 months, she came down with Rotovirus, almost killed her. The doctor at the time preformed a spinal tap because when they attempted to take blood from her lifeless little body, the blood was clotting. I am wondering if the club foot and the spinal tap had anything to do with her scoliosis?

Also, on your web site, it states that scoliosis is not genetic. You are the first physician I've heard to claim that. My Grandmother, Aunt, Mother and myself have scoliosis, but not bad at all. I hardly have a curve to my spine. My son was also diagnosed with it too, but the doctor sent him to physical therapy (which he continued at home) and then a podiatrists fitted him with orthotics in both of his shoes (one foot was flat as a board and the other had a small arch). He is fine now.

But my daughter! What happened to her!? She had those damn Harrignton Rods placed in her back in 2000 (at the age of 12). She is now 22 and complaining about back and neck pain. Her surgeon said she had in inverted neck, blah, blah blah, sounded like he didn't care. This was two years ago. I finally took her to another spine specialists, took xrays (yesterday) and the damn rods are broke and her spine is back to the original curve!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrr! I and my daughter are pissed! I want to kill someone (but I won't, I'm just an angry, hurt and frustrated mother).

She will be having an MRI and CT Scan this week and we'll take it from there, we're thinking about removing the rods, not sure. Her scoliosis was so bad it was cork-screwing and gathering up her lung and just totally messed up her teenage years and her life.

But I just wanted to tell you my personal feelings regarding scoliosis and it being genetic.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Kathy S.

WARNING: Scoliosis surgery may kill or paralyze you!

Sadly, there is a real possibility that you could die or end up in a wheel chair the rest of your life from your scoliosis surgery. Neither did hers! See news clipping HERE

It is a COSMETIC procedure.

Here is what happens in the surgical procedure: If you are Considering Scoliosis Surgery? Read these facts:

• There is NO MEDICAL REASONS for the Surgery. It is a PURELY COSMETIC PROCEDURE

• There ARE side effects

• People do DIE. In fact for kids, 2 of every 1000 surgeries are fatal.

• People do get PARARLYSED. 4 of 100 suffer from paralysis.

• 19% required re-operation within 2 to 8 years after surgery due to PAIN.

• To date, there is no conclusive medical evidence that correction through surgery improves function, self-image or health.

Patients report more pain after five years than at two years after surgery. In teens, scoliosis surgery is a COSMETIC procedure; most of the time, there is no medical justification for doing the surgery.