United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Nick has damage to his median nerve due to tendon repair surgery. He is in pain (numbness, stinging, burning.) His hand, forearm muscles have deteriorated badly. His right shoulder/arm droops down. He needs a good doctor who can give him real medical care. We are in Alabama but will certainly travel...Please respond...help!
Nick's Story...
(age 39) had surgery to repair a torn tendon in his shoulder 6 months ago. (Open incision on top shoulder about 4" long, and two small incisions for camera/light made on the sides of his shoulder.) After waking from surgery, and immediately complaining about his hand pain,his surgeon tried to say it was a bruised nerve, will get better in few months. Then when it didn't get better he said it was carpal tunnel syndrome. Nerve Conduction Study concluded that the entire median nerve was non-responsive, ulnar fine. He was sent to a Neurologist Specialist, for another NCS, that doctor said he "thought" the damage was at the inner elbow. He said he had talked to the surgeon who had said that Nick was strapped down at the elbows. So he ordered an MRI/contrast. Just got the results of that MRI this past week. The specialist said that he could find no damage in the elbow area that would cause the injury to the nerve, and basically there was nothing else he could do for Nick.

In March 07, I was operated on for rotator cuff/bicep tendon surgery. I drove myself to the hospital for the surgery, and signed all my forms. When I was wheeled to recovery after the surgery, I no longer had the use of my left hand (dominant hand). The doctor thought the nerve block was still affecting me, and sent me home. Days later during the followup visit, he realized I had no radial pulse and very low blood flow to the hand. He contacted a vascular surgeon who determined that I needed a arterial bypass in the shoulder due to a irreparable blocked artery. He removed a vein from my right leg and placed it in my shoulder and arm. Three weeks later, he determined that the artery he had put in had collapsed. At this point, I was referred to both a neuro and a vascular surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic who operated on me on Jun 22, 07. The vascular surgeon took a vein from my left leg and did a another arterial bypass which reestablished blood flow to my hand. The neuro surgeon found that the ulnar and median nerves as well as the musculocutaneus nerve and my artery running from my pectoralis major were sutured and entrapped together in 2 sutures sewn in a figure eight fashion. He removed the stiches and determined that I had trace nerve potential leading to the hand and wrist. Muscle in hand has now atrophied, and hand/fingers have become locked. Doctors have basically written me off except for treating pain to the hand with meds.