[cp7959]

I thought I would join your board and share my experience at Stenum Hospital. My intent is not to dicredit or promote Stenum. I believe sharing my experience might help others with their ADR decision. I believe before anyone jumps into surgery anywhere, they should gather as much information as possible.

I am several months post op from a 2 level cervical ADR surgery. The hospital and nursing staff is incredible. They have done a top notch job at making you feel comfortable and welcomed. The ward is all English speaking and I was there with several other Americans, so it felt as if I where in a ward back home.

My surgery was with Dr. Ritter Lang. The morning of the surgery was my first meeting with him. He came to my room with other Stenum staff. He did not look like a DR., nor did he have any paper work, films or other information pertaining to my situation. It was if he just walked off the street. So prior to surgery the only thing that was discussed was me telling him my problem.

From the time I left my room till the end of surgery was 1 hour and 10 minutes. Assuming it took about 20 minutes to be wheeled to the OR positioned in what I would call a "prestaging" area for surgery and then put under, the surgery itself was probably in the 50 minute time frame.

When I awoke I was in much more discomfort than prior to surgery. I am not refering to distraction pain, the pain was nerve related. The same nerve that was impinged prior to surgery. I explained the pain to the Dr. Michael (he is what I would describe as a non surgical Spine Dr.) and he said it was not unusual and would settle in time.

The stay in the hospital after surgery again was top notch. The nurses where wonderful and the other Americans where great people. When I left Germany I was still in pain, but tried to remain optimistic.

Now several months later and reflecting on my experience here's is my situation. I still have radicular symptoms. I have met with an orthopedic surgeon here and have had a CT. I have osteophytes at each of the operated levels. It appears some level of decompression was performed but not as complete as should be. Now I will proceed with steroid injections to see if things can calm down. If not I am probably looking at removal of a least one of the ADR's if not both. So not a very good situation.

My opinion is the Stenum hospital staff is outstanding and impressed with the facility. However I am very disappointed in Dr. Ritter Lang. He could have taken more time to do a proper decompression and take better care of me. Is there a chance that I could of had a nerve problem if I had a 2 hour surgery? Of course there is. However the speed at which my operation was performed increased the chance of failure. And the level of decompression is very disappointing. So now my life is spent trying to fix my problems and I hope to be on the other side soon, it's been to long.

I know that many have had good outcomes at Stenum. There situation may have been different. Maybe they had a different surgeon, or Ritter Lang was more careful. But all I can say is 6 surgeries where done on my day. The first left his room at 10:30am, the last came in the recovery room at about 7:30pm. Thats 9 hours that it took to do 3 lumbar and 3 cervical. All where multi level, but 1 single level lumbar. Todate I understand at least 3 are still having issues.

I am not trying to convince anyone to choose Stenum or not. But if I was asked I would not recommend Ritter Lang. In fact I would ask Stenums US contact Sue Hart about the speed in which surgeries are performed, just to get their opinion. I feel lucky I got an ADR and not fusion from Ritter Lang. Not because of the obvious benefits of ADR. But if I was fused and a proper decompression wasn't done, instead of removing a ADR, I would be looking at a laminectomy or corpectomy to clean things up.

Ritter Lang is probably a great surgeon if he took his time and would probably have a better success rate. On my day he was faster than I would expect, which to me opens up the opportunity for increased failure.

I should have done more home work in picking my surgeon. I did read many good Stenum outsomes on boards. But I also read many bad ones. I should have paid more attention to the bad ones. I should have stayed in the US and got several price quotes for surgery. I should have contacted the approved ADR reps in the US and asked for their help. And if I failed I should have got a fusion. So many things I could have done to give me a better chance.

I hope this information can be helpful to someone. And remember a wrong choice on our part can change the lives of our families and ourselves. Mine has. I love my wife and kids, but I spend all my time trying to be fixed. I have put their life on hold and filled my home with a level of sadness and depression. I am not the man I was prior to Surgery.

I don't blame anyone but myself.