Alyssa’s Journey Through Scoliosis Surgery and Recovery
A pediatric checkup revealed what Alyssa couldn’t feel. She had adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), a curvature of the spine that was already at 36 degrees.
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June 24, 2025
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June 18, 2025
Kiely’s Strength: How Halo Gravity Traction and Life-changing Spinal Surgery at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital Helped One Teen Overcome Scoliosis
At the time, they were living in Louisiana and chose to simply monitor the condition. As Kiely grew, the curvature on her back became more noticeable.
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June 16, 2025
Mark's Story: Returning to a Career After Spinal Cord Injury
In May 2016, Mark Neagli fell down the stairs at his home, resulting in a C2 spinal cord injury. Today, Mark is the executive director of a foundation he helped to form, participates in clinical research projects and is enjoying life with his five children and 11 (soon to be 12) grandchildren....
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June 20, 2024
Gavin’s Story: Overcoming Omphalocele
But in December of that year, during a routine screening in their hometown of Lufkin, Texas, Blain’s doctor found signs suggesting their baby might have spina bifida. The news was shocking, and the couple travelled to visit with specialists for extensive testing. The tests revealed that their son...
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February 6, 2024
Optimizing patient outcomes: Advancements in surgical navigation for scoliosis treatment
At just 15 years old, Jenny Gonzales has a profound understanding of conquering life’s adversities. She has endured 17 medical procedures including two open-heart surgeries. In July 2023, she faced another formidable obstacle: an 11-hour surgery to correct a severe curvature in her spine....
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October 10, 2023
Angel's Story: Traveling and Pursuing Degrees after Spinal Cord Injury
Angel spent several months in the children’s hospital in Austin recovering from the accident. During that time, his parents researched rehabilitation hospitals and learned about Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation at TIRR Memorial Hermann.
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February 27, 2023
Cynthia’s Story: Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery for Urologic Condition Vastly Improves Quality of Life
An MRI revealed a tumor on Cynthia’s spine. The pressure was affecting her nerves, causing numbness in her legs. Because of the location of the tumor, it was critical that it be removed as quickly as possible before causing further damage to the nerves in her spi...
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January 4, 2023
Dylan’s Story: Celebrating Small, but Mighty Victories After Fetoscopic Spina Bifida Surgery
"The ultrasound showed the ventricles in my baby’s brain were enlarged,” said Courtney. “Concerned he might have hydrocephalus, my OB-GYN sent me to a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in town.” A few days later, Courtney met with her family friend and MFM physician, Dr. ...
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October 28, 2022
Wyatt’s Spina Bifida Journey: How Our Miracle Baby Beat the Odds One Step at a Time
A few weeks later, Sarah returned to her OB-GYN for another anatomy ultrasound. As the ultrasound technician glided the probe on Sarah’s growing belly, she noticed something unusual on the monitor. “The ultrasound showed Wyatt had fluid in his brain,” said Sarah.
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October 17, 2022
Lindsay and Kendall’s Story: Finding help for their unborn baby’s spina bifida
Their baby had spina bifida. A portion of her lower spinal cord was exposed. The long-term effects could be seizures, bowel and bladder control issues, and difficulty walking. She might also need a special shunt to regulate her brain’s fluid levels.
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August 16, 2022
Mya’s Story: Setting Her Sights on Big Dreams After Scoliosis Surgery
After undergoing scoliosis surgery seven years ago at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital to treat a severe curvature in her spine followed by three months of healing and recovery – 21-year-old Mya Aguilar has overcome many challenges, and with her audacity and boldness, she is makin...
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March 11, 2022
Khai’Mora’s Story: Mehta Casting Treatment for Infantile Scoliosis
Latorree Garrett describes the first time she saw an X-ray of her daughter’s spine. “To me, it looked like a lizard,” she says. Despite the shock of seeing the severe curvature of her daughter’s spine, she was thankful to finally have a diagnosis for her daughter, now 2 ye...
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September 9, 2021
Abbi's Story: Dancing After Spinal Cord Injury
When Abbi first arrived at TIRR Memorial Hermann, she had mild weakness in her legs, patchy sensation in her legs, painful numbness and tingling in her legs, and difficulty with maintaining her blood pressure when sitting and standing because of her spinal cord injury from her tumor.
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September 9, 2021
Myford's Story: Creating Success after Spinal Cord Injury
Myford Collins set numerous track and field records in junior high and high school and was a Texas All-Star, an All-American and an Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympics champion headed for the Olympics. Then, as an 18-year-old freshman in Irving, Texas, his life changed when a drunk driver ran ...
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April 28, 2021
Lily Nail Celebrates Independence from Spina Bifida
Hailee Nail learned her baby had spina bifida on Aug. 13, 2020, when she saw her obstetrician in Tulsa, Okla., for her 20-week anatomy scan. “My OB/GYN told me that it would require surgery and gave me the names of several centers, but he wanted me to go to Houston,” she says.
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February 9, 2021
Anthony: Working Hard In and Out of the Classroom
When the final bell of the day rang, 18-year-old Anthony Velasquez walked out of his high school just as he had on every other day. It was October 2019, and he was one of a group of teens crossing the street adjacent to his school when a car unexpectedly drove around a school bus and hit Anthony....
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September 18, 2020
Anthony: Taking a Victory Lap
A spinal cord injury that started as a tingling sensation in his fingers quickly developed into numbness and immobility in his legs. After diagnosis and rehabilitation with Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital - Katy, Anthony has returned home and is walking again.
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August 7, 2018
Mila Grace: The Little Smile Monster
When Natalie’s unborn baby daughter, Mila Grace, was diagnosed with spina bifida in utero, Natalie and her husband, Kevin, were stunned. After a routine ultrasound done just a week earlier, her obstetrician suspected that one of Mila Grace’s feet was clubbed and referred Natalie to a ...
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January 7, 2018
Bending the Curve: Mya’s Scoliosis Story
It was November 2014, and Mya Aguilar was three months into her eighth-grade year. She had been called down to the school nurse for an annual checkup. When the school nurse asked Mya to bend over and touch her toes, she noticed something wrong with the eighth-grader’s back. Mya’s mother, Geneva A...
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January 2, 2018
A Surgeon’s Secret: As She Operated on Babies’ Birth Defects, a Doctor Hid Her Own Diagnosis
For many years, Dr. Mary Austin could count on one hand the people who knew. There was her close friend through middle school, who helped her pee by pushing on her lower abdomen. Years later, during her surgical training at Vanderbilt University, she confided in a mentor. Her husband knew, of cou...
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November 16, 2017
Pediatric Hydrocephalus: Another Infant Avoids a Shunt
Harper Lowery was born prematurely at 29 weeks 6 days, the larger of fraternal twins. A cranial ultrasound performed at 10 days of life revealed a bilateral intraventricular hemorrhage. With blood clots blocking the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), Harper’s head began to enlarge to accomm...
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October 18, 2017
Luis' Story: Management of Type B Aortic Dissection
Forty-six-year-old Luis Perez was driving with a friend on a Saturday night when he felt a small pain and a sensation of pressure in his middle upper back. He pulled over, called 911, and was immediately rushed to nearby Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital and immediately transferred to the Larry...
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October 13, 2017
Faith Hagler Five Years Later: Celebrating Independence from Spina Bifida
Picture the bounciest, bubbliest five-year-old you can imagine. Her songs and dance moves come straight from Beyoncé. She loves bright colors and runs to the mirror to check every outfit. Her goal is to be a superstar. And she is a child who was born with spina bifida, one whose immediate future ...
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June 22, 2017
Back in the Pool After Knee Surgery
As a Master’s Swimmer for the past 23 years, Rebecca expects top performance from her body. “Swimming is a very important part of my life — I used to compete and I wanted to still be able to do the breaststroke since that’s my preferred stroke,” says Rebecca. When the pain in her right knee becam...
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May 31, 2017
MaKayla’s Story: Scoliosis Strikes Out
MaKayla’s scoliosis diagnosis came as a complete shock. The petite 13-year-old was a cheerleader, tumbled and played competition softball. By all appearances, she was perfectly healthy. Yet, in September 2015, a visit to a chiropractor for a back injury resulting from a trampoline incident ...
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May 31, 2017
Treveon's Story: Scoliosis Surgery Puts Treveon Back in Action
Since he first began playing football at age 5, Treveon, now a high school sophomore, has dreamed of playing college ball, maybe even going pro. But in eighth grade, he was temporarily sidelined, when a routine visit to his pediatrician revealed a hump on his upper back. X-rays showed a curvature...
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May 9, 2017
Alan Benson: A Successful Nonsurgical Fix for Back Pain
Alan Benson had suffered from very painful sciatica for six long weeks by the time he arrived in the office of interventional pain management specialist Divya Chirumamilla, MD. Two physicians work together at Mischer Neuroscience Associates-The Woodlands to ensure their patients access to fast, c...
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March 22, 2017
Jamie Wright's Hydrocephalus Story: A Personal Matter Becomes a Professional Motivation
Since Jamie Wright was a child, she has wanted to change the outlook for people who struggle with a diagnosis of hydrocephalus, which is the most common reason some children require brain surgery. Out of every 1,000 babies born in the U.S., about one to two are born with hydrocephalus, a conditi...
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December 21, 2016
Jon Bounces Back from Joint Pain
While exercising at the gym one day, Jon felt a slight twinge of pain in his neck. Thinking nothing of it, he continued his workout and daily activities. During a spring break ski trip, that slight twinge became increasingly painful with each day and he developed radiating arm pain and weakness. ...
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August 22, 2016
Tato Stanley Makes a Statistically Improbable Recovery
At the end of a family vacation in Snowmass, Colorado, 17-year-old Clay “Tato” Stanley was seriously injured in a snowboarding accident. “They were doing jumps, and Tato lost control on the landing and was immediately paralyzed,” Tato’s mother, Alice Stanley says. Ta...
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November 19, 2015
Daniel Turya: Recovery After a Biking-Related Brain Injury
It was Daniel Turya’s eighth birthday and he couldn’t wait to take his new birthday gift from his parents out for a spin. It was a shiny new bike, and even though he didn’t have a helmet, he was just riding right outside of his apartment doorstep with his buddies. Soon after he got on, he acciden...
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September 23, 2015
Therapy Gives Natalie Fraker Strength and a Boost of Confidence
A couple of months shy of her fourth birthday, Natalie Fraker’s voice grew a little hoarse. An endoscopic examination by an otolaryngologist revealed a partially paralyzed vocal cord. On biopsy, it was identified as a grade II astrocytoma, a tumor that arises from the star-shaped cells that...
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August 31, 2015
Daquan Minor: The Determination to Win
Eighteen-year-old Daquan Minor, who suffered a fractured skull and a T-6 incomplete spinal cord injury in an auto accident in February 2013. Two years later, he was a key contributor to the 2015 TIRR Memorial Hermann junior Hotwheels win of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association’s Nationa...
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August 31, 2015
Jason Roy: From Zero to a Hundred
As a child, Jason Roy wanted to be a baseball player or a police officer. He initially gravitated towards sports, but then shifted gears and joined the Houston Police Department as an officer. Roy, by then a five-year veteran of the department, flipped his squad car several times during a high-sp...
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October 24, 2014
Braxton Taylor: From Total Assist to Independence
When 20-year-old Braxton Taylor arrived at TIRR Memorial Hermann in August 2013, he was unable to walk, transfer, eat or manage other activities of daily living without total assistance. When he was discharged on Halloween, he could walk with assistance and was independent in most aspects of dail...
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October 16, 2014
Kelly Williams Is Getting Another Wonderful Birthday Present This Year
Kelly and her husband, Chad, count themselves very lucky. The diagnosis of an open neural tube defect, or myelomeningocele, led them on a journey of education, referral, consultations and, ultimately, to open fetal surgery for spina bifida repair. Spina bifida – a major birth defect involving the...
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September 22, 2014
The Berry Family Story: Three Kids Inspire a City
In July 2011, three young siblings lost their parents in a tragic car accident on the way home from summer vacation in Colorado. The Berry family was traveling back to Houston when their vehicle was struck head-on by an SUV that had veered into their lane. The two brothers, Peter and Aaron, who w...
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September 15, 2014
Three Years After the Accident, the Berry Siblings Return to Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital
In July 2011, three young siblings lost their parents in a tragic car accident on the way home from summer vacation. The Berry family was traveling back to Houston when their vehicle was struck head-on by an SUV. The two brothers, Peter and Aaron, sustained serious spinal cord injuries that paral...
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June 12, 2014
Angela Wrigglesworth: Spinal Muscular Atrophy
At 16 months of age, Angela Wrigglesworth was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, a progressive motor neuron disease that causes weakness in the arms, legs and torso. This prevented her from walking and she began using a wheelchair at the age of 5 years. She was admitted to the TIRR Memorial ...
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June 12, 2014
Meena Outlaw: Spinal Cord Injury and Pregnancy
Meena Dhanjal Outlaw was injured on January 23, 2000, after she stepped onto the balcony of her newly built home and was locked out of her house. Concerned about the safety of her 3-week-old son, Miles, and 3-year-old daughter, Jasmine, she attempted to climb down from the balcony. She ended up f...
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June 11, 2014
Saleh Alzahrani: Rehabilitation After Cancer
Saleh Alzahrani was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 12. He underwent a successful surgery to remove a brain stem tumor and then went back to his daily life. At the age of 25, Alzahrani learned that his cancer had returned and another operation was required to remove a tumor, which was located...
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January 27, 2014
Jared Dunten: Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury
While on a camping trip in the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Jared Dunten dove into the Rio Grande with a bar of soap to clean himself up – and hit a sandbar. He woke up in an intensive care unit in Lubbock, Texas, paralyzed from the neck down and breathing with the help of a ventil...
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March 26, 2013
Brittany's Story: Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury
In November 2008, Brittany and her family were moving from College Station to Katy when they had an accident on a two-lane road. Brittany, 11, hit the roof of the van and sustained a T5 spinal cord injury, several broken bones, a collapsed lung and other internal injuries. She was rushed to Memor...
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December 23, 2012
Lexie's Story: Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury
Eleven-year-old Lexie Bolds was having fun visiting a friend in Jasper, Texas, when she was involved in an accident that left her with a broken neck and arm. She injured vertebrae C2-C4 and injured her spinal cord at C4. Rushed to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center by Life Flight® helicopt...
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December 23, 2012
After Being Paralyzed During an NFL Game, Kevin Everett is Standing Tall
When Buffalo Bills’ football player Kevin Everett arrived at TIRR Memorial Hermann in September 2007 after suffering spinal cord injury on the field, he was paralyzed from the neck down. After months of aggressive therapy led by a group of physicians, physical therapists and occupational th...
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October 26, 2012
Faith: Surgery in the Womb to Repair Spina Bifida
Faith’s story begins before she was born. But unlike others, her history was complicated by a prenatal diagnosis of myelomeningocele – spina bifida – at the age of 20 weeks. A complex and permanently disabling birth defect, spina bifida involves incomplete development of a porti...