- Home
- /
-
Jackson Miracle Stories
Jackson Miracle Stories
Your dollars at work.
Kevin and Amy Stalbaum
St. Croix couple involved in hit and run recovers with help from Ryder Trauma Center and Lynn Rehabilitation Center
Kevin Stalbaum, 63, and his wife, Amy Stalbaum, 53, live for adventure. After years of working, the couple decided a quiet retirement awaited them in the Caribbean island of St. Croix.
On September 17, 2023, the Stalbaums went on a bike ride together at 6:45 a.m. Less than 10 minutes into their ride, a car crashed into both of them from behind.
The impact from the crash left both Amy and Kevin unconscious on the road. Emergency medical services rushed the couple to the nearest emergency room on the island, where doctors diagnosed Kevin with leg, cervical, and lumbar fractures, and Amy with severe road rash, a brain bleed, and a spinal fracture.
Because of the severity of their injuries, Amy and Kevin needed to be medically evacuated to the nearest trauma center, and by Monday, September 18, the Stalbaums arrived to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial by helicopter, where they were prepped for emergency surgery.
“For Kevin’s lumbar surgery, we used a CT-based navigation surgical system, which enabled us to direct the screws in the exact position needed. With this procedure, we hope to mitigate Kevin’s pain, and avoid any deformities in his spine from forming in the future,” said Stephen Shelby Burks, Jr., MD, a UHealth – University of Miami Health System neurosurgeon and spinal cord surgeon at Jackson.
At the same time, Amy’s surgical team used robot-assisted surgery to place the screws and rods in her spine. Jackson Memorial is one of a few hospitals in the nation with the robot technology available for use in spinal surgery.
After spending nearly three weeks in the hospital, the Stalbaums were discharged on October 10. They received rehabilitation therapy at Lynn Rehabilitation Center, and created comprehensive plans with therapists to help with their mobility, balance, endurance, and strength.
“We count our blessings that we landed here,” Amy said. “Jackson’s staff and our community back home in St. Croix really helped us get through this.”
Carrie Bloemers
Woman regains movement and function in leg after rare nerve transfer surgery at Jackson
For Carrie Bloemers, 34, staying active was always a part of her daily life.
However, she started to experience extreme pain in her right knee and hip after giving birth to her third baby in May 2020.
“I started going to physical therapy for the pain, and my physical therapist felt a lump in my abdomen, around my right hip,” Bloemers said. “That’s when I found out I was growing a tumor.”
On January 13, 2021, she underwent surgery at a hospital on the west coast of Florida to remove the mass.
However, in the midst of the procedure, her surgeons discovered the tumor was vascular. It intertwined with her femoral nerve, which controls the movement and sensation in the hips and legs. To remove the tumor, her surgeons also had to remove the nerve, causing Bloemers to lose all function in her right quadriceps, or the front muscle on her right thigh.
As a result, the entire front side of her leg went numb.
Facing the possibility of never being able to walk without a cane or knee brace, Bloemers found hope when she met Allan D. Levi, MD, PhD, chief of neurosurgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Levi and the Jackson Memorial neurosurgery team decided a nerve transfer surgery to Bloemers’ right quadriceps muscle was the best option for her – a rare surgical technique that transfers a nerve from another muscle to the affected muscle. On June 4, 2021, Dr. Levi and his team successfully transferred a part of her obturator nerve to the nerve supplying the right quadriceps muscle on Bloemers.
For 16 months after her nerve transfer, Bloemers continued to use a walker and knee brace to get around, as the nerve took time to regenerate. She also needed to train her brain to reactivate the nerve specifically for the affected muscle.
However, by March 2022, she and her doctors picked up her first quadriceps muscle signal.
Today, after nearly two years, Bloemers can walk normally on her own, climb up and down stairs, and keeps up with her family.
“This was a very unique procedure, and they went after it with my own goals in mind. Without this team, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today,” Bloemers said.
Ruamen DelaRua
After a life-threatening motorcycle accident, motorman for City of Miami Police Department saved by Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson South, recovers at Lynn Rehabilitation Center
For Miami native Ruamen DeLaRua, 60, serving his community is part of his identity. For seven years, DeLaRua served as a motorman for the City of Miami Police Department.
On September 9, 2023, DeLaRua was involved in a life-threatening motorcycle accident while on his way to escort patrons during a funeral service.
Bystanders immediately called for help. DeLaRua was rushed to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson South with extensive injuries, including a broken right leg, a broken femur, and fractures in both of his hands. After a successful five-hour procedure, he spent four days at Jackson South recovering.
DeLaRua was transferred to Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial to undergo physical and occupational therapy.
When it was time for him to go home, DeLaRua surpassed all of his rehabilitation goals. He was walking further on the platform walker, and his endurance greatly improved. Additionally, DeLaRua had a ramp
He credits the teams at Jackson South and Lynn Rehabilitation Center for saving his life.
“My heart goes out to all of the teams,” DeLaRua said. “I really appreciate the time and effort they took on just one person. They really treated me like family.”
Rodrick Harden
An arteriovenous malformation rupture left a Miami man unable to function
Rodrick Harden, 55, spent many years serving Miami-Dade County as a roll-off truck driver, keeping our community beautiful.
On January 4, 2021, Harden arrived to the landfill for his last dump of the day, when he fell on debris, hitting his head. Harden felt some discomfort after the fall, but decided to head home for the day and get some rest.
Once home, Harden heard an alarming pop noise in his head. His vision was shrinking, his hearing was fading, and his lower body was growing numb. When he tried to speak, his tongue felt heavy.
Emergency medical services rushed Harden to Jackson North Medical Center where his medical team discovered Harden was suffering from a rare medical condition – a brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM), or an abnormal tangle of blood vessels in the brain.
Harden’s AVM ruptured, causing a hemorrhage, or a brain bleed. The emergency team worked quickly to stabilize him and get his brain bleed under control, and transferred him to Jackson Memorial Hospital for life-saving surgery.
Jacques Morcos, MD, FRCS, FAANS, former division chief of cranial neurosurgery at Jackson Memorial, and a former UHealth – University of Miami Health System cerebrovascular and skull base neurosurgeon, and his team performed a successful eight-hour craniotomy procedure to remove Harden’s AVM.
In addition, Harden received inpatient and outpatient therapy to regain his balance, mobility and speech at Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial.
He’s forever grateful to the teams at Jackson for never giving up on him.
“They are the unsung heroes,” Harden said. “They don’t just tend to patients, they teach us a new way of living, and that you still have some meaning on this earth. I thank my wife, family, doctors, and therapists for their commitment to me.”
Dr. Yasin
Jackson’s former chief of obstetrics and director of maternity services receives life-saving double-lung transplant from The Lung Center and the Miami Transplant Institute
For Dr. Salih Yasin, 70, bringing new life into the world as the former chief of obstetrics and director of maternity services at Jackson Health System was not just a job, it was his passion. For 36 years, Dr. Yasin built an extensive career and community in maternity, obstetrics, and fetal services at Jackson, helping new parents start their families.
Two years after retiring from his role in 2020, he returned to the hospital – not as a doctor, but as a patient in need of life-saving treatment.
By late summer of 2022, he started noticing some shortness of breath, and later developed a cold and fever that wouldn’t go away.
Dr. Yasin sought treatment at an emergency room, and doctors discovered his oxygen saturation was extremely low. He was diagnosed with scleroderma-associated interstitial lung disease, a chronic condition in which scar tissue and inflammation build up in the walls of the lungs’ air sacs, stemming from the scleroderma, an autoimmune disorder.
His health rapidly deteriorated within months of his diagnosis, and he was placed on the waiting list for a double-lung transplant.
On March 20, 2023, he underwent a successful double-lung transplant at Jackson Memorial Hospital, led by Mauricio Pipkin, MD, surgical director of the ECMO program at the Miami Transplant Institute.
Today, he follows a strict, post-transplant regimen to help him stay healthy, and he credits the donor family and the team at Jackson for giving him a second chance at life.
“I received a letter from the donor family; they wanted me to know their son was somebody who always wanted to do good things,” Dr. Yasin said. “Is ‘thank you’ good enough? I don’t know. But my promise to the donor family is the values of their son will continue to live on through me, thanks to the care I received at Jackson and at MTI.”
Isabella Veras
Isabella Veras, 13, was a normal, healthy child who enjoyed music, art, and learning, until one day in 2018 when she began complaining of eye pain. Less than 24 hours later, she lost vision in her right eye. The then seven-year-old was rushed to the emergency room at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute – University of Miami Health System.
During the visit, Isabella was unable to distinguish anything other than hand movement, and reported having a fever and light sensitivity for a week. Byron Lam, MD, an ophthalmologist at Bascom Palmer, found she had optic neuritis, or optic nerve swelling, in the right eye, along with decreased vision, which he treated with steroids.
A month later, Isabella experienced loss of appetite, muscle pain, and decreased vision in her right eye again. She was admitted to Holtz Children’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial Medical Center, where she was put on monoclonal antibodies. During this visit, Roberto Lopez, MD, a pediatric neurologist at Holtz Children’s, performed a lumbar puncture to retrieve spinal fluid for testing. The results showed Isabella had neuromyelitis optica, a rare autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to attack the spinal cord and optic nerves.
Bascom Palmer ophthalmologists and Holtz Children’s neurologists and rheumatologists came together to create a plan, including routine MRIs and immunosuppressant treatment with chemotherapy medication from 2019 to 2022.
“We don’t know what will happen in her future, so it was difficult to decide whether or not to start her on treatment,” Dr. Lam said “That’s where having a multidisciplinary team is so beneficial.”
Over the course of her treatment, Dr. Lopez also treated Isabella’s spinal cord lesions to reduce the abnormal sensations she was experiencing, such as vision loss. With her care team’s support, she remained asymptomatic for five years.
Now, Isabella is thriving in middle school, learning, painting, listening to Taylor Swift, and making big plans for her future.