Chiari Institute Celebrates 2000th Surgery

Medical and administrative staff of the Harvey Cushing Institutes of Neuroscience Chiari Institute recognized the 2,000 recipient of a highly specialized Chiari brain surgery at a ceremony on Feb. 2, 2007, at North Shore University Hospital (NSUH). 

Dana Buer, 14, from Omaha, NE, thanked neurosurgeons of the health system’s Chiari Institute after her surgery just two weeks earlier to treat Chiari malformation of the brain and a spinal cord condition, which relieved her debilitating pain and restored her mobility. Dana was joined by her mother, Kathy, who also had Chiari surgery several years earlier, and another grateful patient, Cathy Bill-Malpica, of Napersville, IL.

Leaders from North Shore-LIJ also thanked the diverse team of healthcare experts of the Chiari Institute for their surgical achievement, including Michael Dowling, president and CEO; Larry Smith, MD, the health system’s chief medical officer; and Dennis  Dowling, executive director of NSUH and LIJ. 

From left to right:  Kathy Buer, Paolo Bolognese, MD, neurosurgeon and associate director of the Chiari Institute; Dana Buer; Thomas Milhorat, MD, chief of neurosurgery at NSUH and LIJ, director of the Chiari Institute and the Harvey Cushing Institutes of Neuroscience; and Cathy Bill-Malpica.