“I began to notice a problem in my right hand in March 2007, a few months after I turned 39. It wasn’t pain but rather numbness, which I took to be carpal tunnel syndrome. I went to see my PCP about it. Right away, he noticed something else — I was walking differently, too. He thought it might be in my neck and he sent me for X-rays and then on to a neurologist who ordered an MRI....
Read Magnel's story.

“Around my 65th birthday I began having a lot of discomfort in my back. I’d been a heavy equipment operator most of my working life and then in recent years I’d taken a desk job working in a construction inspection laboratory. Honestly, I wasn’t all that surprised to be hurting some at my age. So I went to a couple of doctors looking for relief and expecting they’d fix me up....
Read Gary's story.

On the evening of February 19, 2008, 29 year-old Lucia Flores was involved in an automobile accident. Lucia, riding in the passenger seat, was thrown sharply forward when her mother lost control of the wheel and the car rammed into a pole by the side of the road. Fortunately, the air bags deployed, but both women sustained injuries –– the mother a broken femur, and Lucia blows to the right abdomen, the right chest and to the lower back....
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“In 1991, when I was 59, I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Due to all the chemo and steroids I was given to save my life, my bones took a beating. Almost overnight I became bent over. Of course I had to have the steroids and I had complete trust in my oncologist but the sight of what had become of my once-perfect posture was frightening. And the pain really interfered with my life. I couldn’t stand unsupported for any length of time.....
Read Ann's story.

“This odyssey began when I broke my right ankle. The chair I was standing on went out from under me and I ended up on the floor. But that little accident was a blessing in disguise. That’s because my doctor and I paid more attention to the subtle symptoms that followed, whereas I might otherwise have ignored them for months....
Read Clarissa's story.

Tooba Sattar, a 14 year old nonverbal adolescent, was first evaluated at Schneider Children’s Hospital in August 2006. Her parents had been concerned for several years about what they perceived as a spinal deformity, but only recently had the curvature become severe enough to prompt a formal diagnosis of scoliosis. In the six months leading to her visit, her scoliotic curve had progressed from 30 degrees to 42 degrees, she had been prescribed a Boston brace, and her parents had been told that surgery was the best long-term option....
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“As I look back over the last few months, I realize I’ve traveled a long way, medically speaking,” says Tina Johnson, a 54-year-old resident of Queens. “The journey began back in February 2006 while I was riding in a car near my home. Suddenly, I felt this huge jolt as we were rear-ended by a tow truck. The next thing I knew I was on a stretcher being carried into the emergency room at Forest Hills Hospital.”...
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Nancy Schoepfer was about age 12 when she first noticed odd sensations of dizziness and nausea, and at times, she would just “zone out.” Embarrassed, she kept her problem a secret....
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When a sport utility vehicle plowed into 18-year-old Kayla Kendra’s car on June 12, 2006, her eagerly anticipated plan of attending college in the fall was altered in a frightening and dramatic way. Barely breathing and bleeding profusely from severe trauma to the head and torso, she was rushed to the emergency room at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, NY....
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Bill's Parkinson’s disease progressed to where he could no longer read his newspaper, write simple notes or shave. Embarassed by his helplessness and depressed, he stopped going out in public. That's when he decided to make an appointment at the Parkinson’s Disease Center...
Read Bill's story.

While other mothers were driving their kids to soccer practice and ballet classes, Marissa was spending her days in frustration and worry as doctors were baffled by her daughter's symptoms. Marissa become increasingly isolated, depressed and eventually wheelchair-bound until she found the Chiari Institute...
Read Marissa's story.

When Veronica suffered a burst aneurysm her sisters brought her to North Shore University Hospital so that she could receive advanced care from Drs. David Chalif and Avi Setton, who they remembered reading about. Veronica doesn’t recall anything about those scary hours, but she is thankful that she was in expert hands...
Read Veronica's story.