Emily's Story
October 18, 2021Robotic Chest Surgery Relieves Emily's Severe Pain
Emily Himelfarb was in misery. Acute pain prevented the 57-year-old from raising her arms to shoulder level; both hands were too weak to hold anything for long before dropping it. Worse, no doctor seemed willing, or able, to help her.
“My physician knew I needed to see a specialist and referred me to several big name hospitals,” Emily says. “But they wouldn’t touch me.”
Their reluctance was due to the suspected cause of her problem: thoracic outlet syndrome.
Difficult to diagnose and tough to treat, thoracic outlet syndrome results when the bundle of nerves and blood vessels running from the neck through the armpit become compressed or entrapped in the space between the collar bone and first rib. Traditional surgery to remove the rib involves a long and tricky approach through the armpit, made more complex by the many critical and delicate structures that must be avoided along the way. “We visited many doctors looking for pain relief for Emily,” explains her husband Andrew.
Fortunately, they found Bryan Steinberg, MD, a thoracic (chest) surgeon and a member of Holy Cross Health’s comprehensive lung care services. And for the first time in nearly a year, Emily had a glimmer of hope.
“When I met Emily, she was in constant pain and desperate for some relief,” recalls Dr. Steinberg. “I really wanted to help her and was even considering traditional, open surgery, despite its pitfalls and drawbacks.”
Then he attended a symposium on robotic surgery. “I had a real ‘Aha!’ moment,” he says. “All of a sudden, here was a less invasive, more direct and more precise route to solve Emily’s problem.”
After surgery at Holy Cross Germantown Hospital for thoracic outlet syndrome, Emily Himelfarb now has full use of both of her arms and hands.
|
|
So in February 2016, Emily became the first patient at Holy Cross Germantown Hospital to undergo minimally invasive robotic surgery to her shoulder for thoracic outlet syndrome. Thrilled by the results, she had her other shoulder fixed six months later.
“I admit I was scared at first,” she says today. “But the robotic surgeries really did help. I’m so thankful I found Dr. Steinberg and that I could have such a sophisticated procedure performed so close to my home.”
As Emily discovered, Holy Cross Health’s lung care services provide expert care for a range of complex conditions.
“Holy Cross Health combines leading physician expertise with a multidisciplinary approach and advanced technology to offer high-quality, comprehensive care that is tailored to each patient at risk of developing lung cancer or who has been diagnosed with other chest conditions,” says Joseph Ball, MD, Pulmonary, Holy Cross Health. “Holy Cross Health has done an amazing job at making sure our lung care services have the tools and support needed for top-quality care,” Dr. Steinberg says. “We can now offer options and hope to patients who thought they had neither.”