Denita's Story*

While visiting friends in Virginia Beach, Dallas-area resident Denita was riding in a car that was struck by a drunk driver. Denita suffered near-fatal injuries that would change her life. Her left leg, hip, and ear were maimed during the accident, and medics needed to resuscitate her twice while rushing her to the hospital.

The wreck shattered one of the vertebrae in Denita's lower back. Surgeons implanted a metal rod into her back and grafted bone from her rib cage to stabilize her spine and repair some of the damage. Denita lost 40 percent of the feeling in her body, all on her left side. The damage to her spine threatened to paralyze her permanently.

"They told me I had a 50 percent chance to walk again and was going to live with pain for the rest of my life," says Denita. But she would walk again, and after a year of physical therapy and determination, Denita was walking unassisted. Her chronic pain remained, however.

It began as a constant, dull ache, but Denita's pain intensified. "It was a jutting, burning pain, as if somebody were taking a knife and jabbing it clear to my bones," she says. The severe, constant pain kept her from functioning and strained her relationships with friends and family.

"I hate to admit it, but I just wasn't a good person to be around back then. Everyone thought I was depressed," she recalls. "But it was the pain."

An acquaintance, who also suffered back pain, told Denita about a chronic pain treatment called neurostimulation. After researching the treatment online and discussing it with a pain physician, Denita decided undergo a neurostimulation trial evaluation.

The trial was a success and she had a neurostimulator permanently implanted in July 2007. According to Denita, she experiences 95 percent pain relief in all her pain areas. "It brought me to tears. I couldn't believe how well it worked."

Denita says neurostimulation is the best thing that ever happened to her since her accident and that she is back to leading a normal life. She again does the things she loves, including dancing, camping, getting together with friends, and spending time with her three children. Denita says, "neurostimulation gave me my life back. It's allowed me to take part in my life without worrying about the pain."

*The above testimonial is the experience of this individual only. It is an individual result and we do not claim that it is representative of the experience that all or most patients achieve and is not indicative of future performance or success.

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