United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi my name is Harry and i'm 23. I was in a Motorcycle accident on January 19th 2008. A jeep pulled out in front of me so I was told. I don't remember. I was wearing a helmet or else I may not be able to type this. I have a Brachial Plexus injury to my right arm(dominent), among other injuries that have or are healing. I can bend my fingers a little and also my elbow just a little. I can not straighten or pick-up my arm or hand. I have feeling except my pinky, under my forearm, and a bit of my shoulder. I have pain in the areas that have no feeling if that makes sense. I have become very atrophied also. I did not have health insurance and only had comprehensive on my bike. I was in school at MMI in Florida and it being a no-fault state was only offered $10,000. I have a lawyer working on getting more but if I do it will be 2-3 years. I have been able to get PA Medicaid, but no out of state doctors will accept it, but my family and I are going to do whatever we have to do to pay for surgery. I have talked to the Mayo Clinic and they said could be $600,000, then I sent my information and a video to Dr. Nath and after about 2 months he talked to me and told me he would only try to help my bicep, and not touch my shoulder or tricep, which was earlier this week(bout broke my heart). I have an appointment with Dr. Eric Zagar in Philadelphia June 12th. Thats pretty much the quick short version. So...My question is...Can anyone help me with any names of doctors that have helped them get their arms working. I was told their isn't a large window to have this type of surgery done, and I don't want to be turned away. I have had an EMG and MRI done, and was told my nerves were not pulled from my spine, but thats not 100% tests, and someone has to go in. Doctors aren't familier with this injury in my area. I keep getting "Thats strange this moving but this doesn't hmmmm...". I have never heard of this before it happened to me, and I feel for everyone that has a similar injury or worse, and Pray for everyone to have a recovery not just from this, but from all injuries. Thank you very much Harry O

Hi Harry, Welcome to the club no one wants to join. You have definatly found the right place for information and support. Lots of people going through the same things as you. My son Dustin was injured in a car accident 11/05. You didn't mention if you are doing PT or OT, but that would be a good place to start. Also you are talking to all the right drs. There is also a "resources" link at the top of the page if you think you would like other opinions. Most drs don't seem to have a clue about this injury. Like you, we only learned of it when Dustin was injured. Yup, an EMG is not 100% accurate and without going in to see they can only give you an educated guess as to the actual damage. Nerve transfers are the ones that need to be done as soon as possible. Muscle transfers can be done at any time. Although your injury must seem old to you, it is still new and you may see improvement for several years. E-stim and Biofeed back are other good things you can do at home. We are in WI and I know that Mayo in MN takes Medicare from here, not sure about from PA though. Good Luck, keep us posted and be sure to ask anything.
Sue

Hi Harry,
My boyfriend Dimitri is going through the same problem. He was at Mayo last week and Mayo turn him done due to having Illinois State Insurance. There are no specialist in Illinois and can not find anyone that is a specialist that will take his insurance.I really don't know what he is going to do.He needs the surgery by next month before the nerves start dying. Did you find any help????
Where you at Mayo last week because he met a guy and was telling me the story about him, that he was going through the same thing Dimitri was.

Hi,

You could try going to see Dr. Mackinnon : http://www.plasticsurgery.wustl.edu/Fac ... sp?DrID=66
In St. Louis.

She and her team did my surgery. So far it has been very successful. Bicep and triceps have returned and I an starting to see shoulder movement as well. I highly recommend them and they had no problem with my out of state workers comp insurance.

Cheers,
Joel

i went to mckinnon too dr tung did my surgery they were great dr tung told me just to be patient so it's the waiting game for me but surgery was not that bad at all
daniel

Hi Daniel & Joel
Thank you for you advice !!! The funny thing is Dimitri went to Dr Mckinnon & Dr Tung. Since Dimitri accident was 8 months ago his arm and muscles are starting to dry out. I was wondering if you could give me a little background on your injury. Dimitri was told by several doctors, his injury is very complex and serious. They want to take the nerves from his legs and graft them to his neck and then take the main nerve from his back and put it in his arm. I'm concerned about moving the nerve in his back from the back muscle. Do you guys know anything about his. His shoulder is also dislocated and they said they could not fix the should right now.

they took nerves out of my legs and my ribs and some out of my good shoulder tranplanted them all the way up my left arm then i went back they hooked them up in the upper left arm i guess to nerves that were firing then they told me not to even call them for like a year and it maybe take 2 to three years to allow these nerves to grow and do their thing and now i wait to see if anything happens my injury was very severe i basically died and they brought me back so i'm just glad to still be tickin i don't know if it will work but mckinnon is very good and reknown and dr tung was great to me and really took care of me when i was there i hope it goes well for him as well

How long after your accident did you have surgery? How long has it been since your surgery? have you seen any improvement?

it was three months after i got out of hospital the first time after the wreck and then another surgery three months after that and now it's the waiting game but i have full paralyzed arm except one strip of feeling in the back of upper arm no feeling other than that except pain so .....

Hi,

I had all kinds of nerves moved around in my back, peck, rib etc. It has been very worth it. I went from only being able to flex my hand to full elbow movement (bicep/triceps). Shoulder is getting better to. Slower than elbow but progressing. I had my surgery done Aug 2007. I recommend getting it done. In my experience its been very very worth it.

The thing is that you are always "robbing peter to pay paul" but without paul, peter is kind of worthless.



Joel