← Back Zion R. | Congenital Scoliosis

This is a 16-year-old who was born with a condition called congenital scoliosis, which means he had abnormalities in his spine that caused it to curve. In addition to his scoliosis, he also had significant issues with the vessels and valves of his heart that eventually caused it to start failing. To fix his heart condition, he underwent a complete heart transplant at NYP! During this procedure surgeons were able to remove his failing heart and replace it with a fully functioning heart from a donor.

After the successful transplant, his curve continued to progress and needed to be fixed as well. Once Dr. Vitale was given the green light from the cardiac team, he performed a posterior spinal fusion surgery from T3-L4 PSIF and hemivertebra resection T11/12 to correct the curvature in his spine. He was discharged from the hospital only 3 days after the surgery with his spine straightened out dramatically in all three dimensions! He is now several years after surgery and doing well post-operatively without any issues.