Brachial Plexus Injury
Josh

Josh’s Story As Told By His Mother, Diana

“Josh is back to doing all the things he loves and is thriving in college. No doubt that his success is because of not only his own will to heal but also because of the thorough and attentive care provided by Dr. Brown and his team.”

Complete paralysis in Josh’s right arm, caused from a snowboarding accident, was restored with a brachial plexus surgery.

On December 28, 2016, My 17 year-old son Josh went snowboarding at Bear Mountain with his friends like he had done so many times before. He has always been extremely active and competitive, enjoying extreme sports like competitive surfing, soccer, wakeboarding, and skateboarding, to name a few. However, on this particular day after this particular run, he wasn’t able to land the jump successfully and fell hard on the right side of his body, crushing it. He broke five ribs, shattered his clavicle, punctured his lung, and compressed the brachial plexus and subclavian artery. His initial complaint was the numbness and tingling in his right arm.

He was quickly airlifted to the local mountain hospital for immediate care and then airlifted to the nearby trauma center for further evaluation.

Fortunately, Josh was able to recover from most of these extensive injuries, however, he continued with limited mobility of his left arm. We were very fortunate to have found Dr. Brown through the Mayo clinic in Rochester. With no clear evidence as to why Josh’s arm was paralyzed, Dr. Brown suggested that exploratory surgery would be the next best step. What he found was massive scarring which was causing his debilitating lack of movement. Dr. Brown spent over 6 hours removing the scar tissue and performed a nerve graft from Josh’s leg to replace the damaged nerves in his arm. The surgery was a big success and physical therapy played a huge role in his recovery.

Josh is back to doing all the things he loves and is thriving in college. No doubt that his success is because of not only his own will to heal but also because of the thorough and attentive care provided by Dr. Brown and his team.

So, Dr. Brown is the reason that Josh’s arm is ‘back’. He saved my kid’s arm. I know that’s not as profound or monumental as someone saying “this doctor saved my kid’s life”, but he saved my kid’s life in the way he knew it.