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Methodist Dallas Medical Center
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Summer 2015
Nursing
is physical work, with lifting patients, pushing and
pulling beds, and walking the halls for 12-hour shifts.
So when 30-year-old Vanita Currin, RN, began experiencing
shooting pain through her back and down her leg in winter 2014,
she chalked it up to her job. Then on Feb. 6, 2014, the nurse had
an unexpected role reversal.
“I became the patient,” she says.
“That night the pain was so bad I went to the emergency
department at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center. I thought it
was a slipped disk or a pinched nerve. Worst-case scenario I would
need steroid shots.”
The worst-case scenario was worse than Vanita imagined. An
MRI scan showed multiple tumors along her spine.
Repairing a broken back
Vanita, a wife and mother of three, was diagnosed with multiple
myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow.
A follow-up appointment was scheduled for the following
week. However, only a few days after coming home from the
emergency department, the large T9 vertebra in her back
completely collapsed. She was taken by ambulance to Methodist
Mansfield and then transferred to Methodist Dallas Medical
Center for spine surgery.
“Without surgery, Vanita could have been paralyzed,” says
Richard Meyrat, MD, neurosurgeon with the Methodist Moody
Brain and Spine Institute.
He performed two procedures to repair Vanita’s spine. During
the first, he used a minimally invasive approach to remove
the tumor-ravaged vertebra and replace it with a titanium
mesh insert.
“It acts like a jack, lifting up the collapsed part of the spine to
restore height and alignment,” Dr. Meyrat says.
Because the tumor was fed by a blood vessel deep inside the
body, removing it caused extensive bleeding. To prevent future
bleeding, Ben Newman, MD, endovascular neurosurgeon with the
Institute, injected a material into the blood vessel where it was
feeding the tumor. He accessed it via a tiny incision in the groin
and threaded his way through the blood vessel to the tumor site.
Both Drs. Meyrat and Newman then collaborated to perform
Vanita’s second surgery: implanting a steel rod and screws to
support the weakened spine. Five days later, Vanita went home.
“I felt a huge relief,” Vanita says. “All the neurological
back pain was gone, and my experience at Methodist Dallas
was awesome.”
Overcoming cancer
Vanita’s follow-up treatment included chemotherapy and a
bone marrow transplant. While at Methodist Dallas, Vanita was
introduced to Vasu Moparty, MD, oncologist and hematologist
with Texas Oncology – Methodist Cancer Center. Because Vanita
responded so well to the chemotherapy he prescribed, she was
able to have her bone marrow transplant in early July.
“After I came home from that, it was like ready, set, go,” she says.
“I wanted to start doing what Vanita does — doing what I needed for
my children, to be a wife, to be a daughter, to be everything. And I
A team approach heals Vanita Currin’s
broken back and helps her overcome cancer
No
backing
down