Tyler Theroux came into the world with a brachial plexus birth injury that kept his left arm dysfunctional and contorted in pain. As a child, he couldn’t engage in playground activities like the monkey bars, and his classmates would bully him about the injury.
Eventually, Theroux dropped out of school to be homeschooled. While the teasing stopped, the pain didn’t: His parents watched him experience fresh agony with every growth spurt. The brachial plexus is the group of nerves that sends signals from the spinal cord to the shoulder, arm and hand, and that nerve pain kept him awake at night, despite multiple attempts at surgery and therapeutic treatment.
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Despite the pain, Theroux, 27, did his best to live a normal life, supported by his parents and brothers. He went to college to study recreational therapy, so he could help people with injuries like his, but a bad fall on ice — worsened by his inability to catch...
Since its introduction in the United States in the mid-2010s, Descemet stripping only (DSO) has revolutionized the surgical management of Fuchs dystrophy. Although similar procedures were originally explored in the 1950s and for some time after, these met with little success.
The current technique—pioneered in the United States by Kathryn A. Colby, MD, PhD, the Elisabeth J. Cohen, MD, Professor of Ophthalmology and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine—involves removal of the diseased endothelium and mound-shaped aggregates, known as guttae, without the need for a donor graft.
From early on in his career, Jacques Hacquebord, MD, performed major reconstructive work on patients at NYC Health +
Hospitals/Bellevue, including many with hand and arm amputations. Caring for these patients introduced him to the fascinating
world of prosthetic devices. Working with occupational therapists, mental health experts, and those who make and fit artificial
limbs, known as prosthetists, he saw a field brimming with potential.