In 2022, Eron began experiencing severe neck pain and difficulty holding her head in an upright position. She had developed a severe chronic spinal infection from leakage of her oral bacteria into the space around the spinal column in her neck, causing erosion and collapse of four vertebrae in her neck.
Eron’s daughter Kelly describes her mom as stubborn, strong-willed, and independent. In 1995, Eron discovered a cancerous lump in her neck. Her care team in Florida treated her with the maximum dose of radiation in her entire head and neck to get rid of the cancer. The aggressive treatment damaged the tissue in Eron’s neck that eventually required Eron to use a feeding tube.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Eron was living alone in South Carolina. She started to struggle with swallowing and felt like something was stuck in her throat. When she looked in the mirror, Eron could see a mass starting to form in her neck. She went in for her annual check-up with her local ENT surgeon and had the mass biopsied. In July of 2020, Eron found out she had cancer again.
To remove the mass from her throat, the surgical team in South Carolina removed a significant amount of tissue from Eron’s neck and left a thin layer of tissue covering her spine and her carotid arteries. The quality of Eron’s tissue was so poor from her aggressive radiation treatment in 1995, that a flap graft used to cover her spine would not take, leaving the spinal column potentially expose to bacteria from the oral cavity. “They said there’s nothing more we can do for you,” recalled Kelly. “They said it didn’t heal well.” Eron recalled being told that she was “too old to save” by another surgeon.
“We walked in and [Dr. Galgano] immediately said ‘so nice to meet you, I have a plan.’ I was thrilled.”
In 2022, Eron began experiencing severe neck pain and difficulty holding her head in an upright position. She had also developed difficulty maintaining balance while she was walking, and had a progressive loss of hand dexterity. She began having multiple bouts of aspiration from her challenges with swallowing. Kelly and her sister noticed that Eron would occasionally shuffle her feet and that it had become hard for her to hold her head up and get comfortable. When Eron moved to Florida to live with Kelly and her significant other Matt, an orthopedic surgeon, they took her in for imaging. Eron’s scans showed that her spinal cord was being compressed. “We started researching and found Dr. Galgano,” said Kelly. “I called his office and got a polite responsive human and they made us an appointment within 3 weeks.”
Complex spine surgeon Dr. Michael Galgano discovered that Eron had developed a severe chronic spinal infection from leakage of her oral bacteria into the space around the spinal column in her neck. The infection caused erosion and collapse of four vertebrae in her neck, leading to a rigid “chin-on-chest” posture. Her spinal cord was also significantly stretched out from the hunch-neck deformity that had developed.
Kelly traveled with her mom to Chapel Hill for Eron’s consultation with Dr. Galgano. “He was so nice,” recalled Kelly. “We walked in and he immediately said ‘so nice to meet you, I have a plan.’ I was thrilled.”
Kelly felt even more sure of Dr. Galgano’s surgical expertise and ability to take care of her mom after he took time to speak with Matt about the surgery over the phone. “I had shown the x-rays to some of my partners and they said they wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole,” recalled Matt. “We were lucky to find Dr. Galgano because he had obviously done this before and had confidence and expertise that he could take care of her. Doctors told her she had to live with this. Galgano said no we got this.”
Dr. Galgano understood that correction of Eron’s spinal deformity would necessitate a high-risk, multi-disciplinary approach with a complex head and neck ENT specialist. He encouraged Kelly and her family to have their mother evaluated by Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg from the Department of Otolaryngology at UNC Health.
After meeting Dr. Blumberg, “My sister called me crying,” recalled Kelly. “They said they could do a flap using a skin graft from mom’s arm,” said Kelly. “He was so kind and made my sister feel like my mom was worth saving.”
Eron went in for stage I of her surgery at UNC Health on January 31, 2024. The surgery was performed by Dr. Galgano and Dr. Blumberg, and lasted for 14 hours.
Due to the lack of functionality of her larynx which was causing her to suffer chronic aspiration, she was offered a laryngectomy to hopefully allow her to eat again. The laryngectomy procedure would also allow for unparalleled exposure to the spine to allow Dr. Galgano to do his work. “The laryngectomy went as planned, but the site of her previous free flap clearly had a fistula to the spine and required removal of all the tissue of the pharynx from the base of tongue to the esophagus,” said Dr. Blumberg.
After Dr. Blumberg completed the laryngectomy, Dr. Galgano performed a 4-level vertebral column resection. This entailed the completed removal of Eron’s C3, C4, C5, and C6 vertebral bodies. He then reconstructed her spinal column using a titanium vertebral body replacement, and attached it to the remainder of her spine using screws and plates. This part of the surgery removed all of Eron’s chronically infected vertebrae, corrected her hunch-neck deformity, and also decompressed her spinal cord.
“Once Dr. Galgano finished his procedure, it was quite late in the day,” said Dr. Blumberg. “In order to expedite her reconstruction, a myocutaneous pectoralis major pedicle flap was used to reconstruct her pharynx with a circumferential skin tube.”
After allowing her to rest and recover for the next 48 hours from her complex operation, Dr. Galgano took Eron for her stage II operation. This entailed placing screws and rods into the back of her neck for definitive stabilization and maintenance of her new spinal alignment.
Along the course of her recovery, Eron had a skin graft that did not take, and required another small operation. Her wounds were also slow to heal. “This lady has nine lives,” said Matt.
In total, Eron spent a month recovering in the hospital followed by a second month at an inpatient rehabilitation facility before being discharged to live with her daughter in North Carolina. Kelly traveled back and forth from Florida and the two sisters made sure their mom made it to all of her appointments.
“She has a bionic neck now,” said Kelly. “When we saw Dr. Galgano at follow-up, he shared the pictures of the screws and the surgery.”
Now Eron is back in Florida living with her daughter Kelly. Eron is unable to speak, but despite that, Kelly says that her mom’s quality of life has improved exponentially. “She’s had amazing results,” said Kelly. “They released the pressure on her spine and she no longer stumbles and falls. She’s learning how to swallow food again. That’s something she had not been able to do in 22 years. Overall, she is doing amazing.”
Eron can go places with her family and writes to communicate. “I’m still healing, but better every day,” said Eron.
“My favorite thing about healthcare is you are not just saving one person, you’re touching the lives of everyone that loves that person.”
Matt was also extremely impressed with the care that Kelly’s mom received. “From start to finish it was outstanding care,” said Matt. “The expertise of the doctors and the way they worked together as a team was incredible. Their expertise and skill helped her have minimal problems and an outstanding outcome. Those two really did a great job.”
Kelly was also impressed by Dr. Galgano, Dr. Blumberg, and the rest of Eron’s care team at UNC Health for never giving up on her mom. “They did so much for her,” added Kelly. “It was one problem after another, but they did not quit on her. Now she’s as close to whole as she could possibly be after everything she’s been through.” Kelly and her sister were able to take their mom to France to celebrate her 75th birthday.
Kelly looks forward to being able to spend more time with her mom in Florida and letting Eron enjoy her new favorite food, pudding. “My favorite thing about healthcare is you are not just saving one person, you’re touching the lives of everyone that loves that person.”
Article by: Makenzie Hardy, Marketing Coordinator, Department of Neurosurgery