United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My husband is a police officer shot in the line of duty on New Year's Eve. The bullet entered his back above his right shoulder blade & exited through the front under his right clavicle. He has no movement in his right arm from his shoulder down to upper forearm...some finger & wrist movement. He had an EMG/NCV test done on 1/24 that appears to indicate severed nerves in the brachial plexus (C5/C6). The local neurologist we saw admitted that my husband's case was beyond his field of expertise. He suggested a Doctor Bob Leefert at MASS General in Boston. The primary care doctor that we see doesn't appear to have much resource available in terms of doctors specific to this injury. At his request, we have an appt on Monday with a Dr. Pedro Beredjiklian in Philadelphia...a micro-surgeon but I'm not sure of his experience in TBPI. We're a little lost right now & none of the doctors appears to have a good grasp on the injury treatment, prognosis or time frame. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions about doctors within the North East area? I feel like we're grasping at straws right now & would feel much better if we had a definitive course of care. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Sorry to hear about your husband's injury. I'm in New Zealand so I don't know of any bpi specialists where you are but I'm sure someone will. Make sure whoever you choose is experienced specifically with tbpi in adults. I hope you get some help soon, it's important he sees a specialist as soon as possible. Good luck!

Hi,

I live in Connecticut. My son, Eric, suffered a complete injury to his left arm in a car accident. He was air-lifted by helicopter to a major hospital in Hartford where they told us they thought he had a BP injury. At that time one of the doctors told us about a specialist in New Orleans, Dr. Kline. But, because of insurance purposes, could only refer us to Yale-New Haven Hospital because they have a BP specialist there. We went to an appt. there where we found out that Eric was a candidate for surgery and they arranged a surgery date for him. But, one of the key members of their BP team was leaving the hospital and wouldn't be involved in the surgery. In the meantime, I did my own work and talked to Dr. Nath in Texas via email and secured an appt. in Texas. I had also tried to reach Dr. Kline and got no response at first. I started to pursue the Texas date with Eric's primary care doctor and just when I was ready to start getting flights, etc. got a response from New Orleans with Dr. Tiel (Dr. Kline's office). They also gave me an appt./potential surgery date. Now I had 3. Of course, based on what I was told in Hartford, I decided to cancel Yale and Texas and go for New Orleans. We were successful in getting our insurance company to agree to pay for surgery in New Orleans because they had much, much more experience with this type of surgery than our local hospitals did. Surgery (nerve graft/transfer) was done in October 2000 to the C5 and C6. Eric has had some good movement return to bicep, deltoid. At this point in his recovery nothing more can be done. Any additional surgery would be based on amount of recovery. Currently, he will not get any return of his hand. The C7, C8 and T1 were not repaired. I also want to stress the importance of not giving up on what you want, who you want to see. It's worth it to find a real expert in the field, and time is very critical to potential recovery. Good luck to you!

Hi from Scotland, sorry to hear about your husbands injury, i can only say what everybody else says get a bpi specialist asap, but keep us posted on developments. And remember this is a good site & you will get a lot of information here & bags & bags of support, goodluck.

I'm really sorry to hear about your husband's injury. I hope that you able to find a great surgeon for him and hope that there's as chance for recovery. Please keep us updated so we can pray for him when his surgery date comes.

God Bless,
francine

Hello Lisa,

Yes, actually I can suggest someone in the North East. Try the Philadelphia Hand Center. When I went there they were affilated with Thomas Jefferson Hosptial. I am not sure if they still are. The doctor I saw was Dr. Hunter.

My warning to you is this... expect to wait a minimum of 8 to 10 hours to be seen. I have left his office as late as 2 or 3 in the morning with a 10 a.m. appointment. We always signed in, got a motel and then would call to find out how much longer it would be before we would be seen. If he suggests surgery ALWAYS schedule them on a Monday. If that man is working until 2 or 3 in the morning and then doing surgery at 6 or 7 you want to make sure he is fresh...thus Monday's!

Also don't forget that it is a teaching facility. You will see Dr. Hunter but often times you will also be seen by an intern. If you are not comfortable with this don't go.

You will find people from all over the United States sitting in his office. I met people from the South and as far West as California.

If I can answer any more questions feel free to email me.

I am left BPI from a car accident in 1991.

Joy

MAYO CLINIC, Rochester Minn. They have the best micro vacular/neurosurgeon for this injury.

My husband got his tbpi in Oct. of last year. We also were referred to New Orleans but due to insurance problems we decided to go to Pittsburgh to Dr. Robert Goitz. My husband has nerve avulsion. We go for nerve transfer surgery on Feb. 19th. I know that time is of the utmost importance with TBPI and that you can't wait to see how we make out. But maybe you can research him for yourself and see what you think. I found out today that he's performed surgery on a man from Saudi Arabia and Germany. I don't know if this means anything, but if they travel that far, he must know something. Sorry, I couldn't help more. Much luck to you and your husband. Oh yeah, Dr. Goitz is with UPMC in Pittsburgh Pa. Debi

There are many qualified surgeons...If you can, find one who specialises in hand and upper limb function.

In my city ( london, canada ) one hospital actually had a HAND AND UPPER LIMB CENTRE. Most of the treatment is broken bones etc but they did have a surgeon whose expertise was plasic and reconstructive surgery relating to the hand and upper limb. They also backed me up with lots of qualified physical therapy both before and after surgery. My PT was involved from the beginning with my surgeon.

I had a quite severe injury ( loss of use of my hand ) but I can say that without the team approach my upper arm would never have recovered as well as it has.

For the first while my arm was totaly flail. 8 months after reconstructive surgery I regained elbow and shoulder movement. 3 years later and I'm pretty well totally self sufficient again. Sure there are some things I can't do like ride a motorcycle or scratch my left shoulder BUT life is good.

Keep us posted. We are here for help and support, Take care, Mike

Hi Lisa, very sorry to hear that your husband was injured. Looks as if you've gotten some good info above....so I'll just say good luck to you and your family, and that as you can see, there are a lot of great people here that care. Let us know how you're coming along )

George