Gabriellas Journey | Cincinnati Childrens

http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/Spine

Gabriella Mendez was diagnosed with scoliosis at 10 years old. During a regular checkup, her pediatrician noticed her spine was curving. They took an X-ray and saw it was a 44-degree curve. 50 degrees is when they start recommending surgery. That summer, she was fitted for a brace.

Gabriella Mendez: “I had to wear a brace for 18 hours a day. And I wore a brace for two years. And then I went to gymnastics every Wednesday. So, I had to figure out how to incorporate wearing my brace for 18 hours while taking it off for gymnastics.”

With scoliosis, it’s not just the spine that’s the issue, it’s what it does to your internal organs.

Gabriella: “When we took an X-ray, I saw that my spine was hitting my lung. So, we figured out that that was causing my back pain.”

Her parents wanted to do everything they could to avoid surgery and help ease her pain.

Raina Mendez, Gabriella's mom: "She was living with pain. She was living with being restricted in a brace. She was doing physical therapy every day. You know, I felt like scoliosis was just in her daily life.”

Her mom did her research and found out about a newer procedure that was FDA-approved at the end of 2019 and was being performed at Cincinnati Children’s.

Raina: “Less invasive, a quicker recovery time. She would have her mobility and her spine, so it wouldn’t be fused.”

It’s called Vertebral Body Tethering, or VBT.

Viral Jain, MD: "We modulate, or alter the growth of the spine. And allow the convex side (turns to the x-ray) which is this side right here. We control the growth on the convex side (points at the x-ray) and allow the concave side to grow as the child grows older.”

CJ Mendez, dad: “We just wanted what was best for our child. We knew that VBT was, even from the very beginning, we knew that VBT was the direction we wanted to go in.”

VBT is ideally performed on children between 10 and 13 years old – based on their bone age. Gabriella was just about to turn 12.

Dr Jain: “So, that’s a fairly narrow window especially for girls because they, during those years, tend to mature relatively quickly.”

They also had to take into account, this was during a pandemic. Tt was springtime, 2020.

Dr Jain: “We had to essentially balance the risk of waiting and Gabriella becoming too old for this procedure so that it won’t work.”

Dr. Jain contacted the Mendez family and scheduled Gabriella’s surgery.

Gabriella: "When he told me that I had to get surgery he was so calm. And I was like, how are you being this calm? Because I was like freaking out and stuff. And he just handed me a tissue and was like, everything is going to be fine.”

Gabriella wore her brace for almost two years, up until her VBT surgery.

Gabriella: “Once I got surgery, I didn’t have that back pain anymore.”

(“Surprise!” video of Gabriella walking into room)

A year later, her family held a surprise gathering and a special cake to mark Gabriella’s one year "spine-aversary."

CJ: “She has full mobility, she has no restrictions. She can get on a rollercoaster if she wants to. She can go swimming. There are really no restrictions or limitations to what she can do at this point. And that’s mainly due to VBT and what Dr. Jain was able to do.”

Dr Jain: “I’m very happy how she is and how quickly she recovered. And how well she's doing afterwards. And is able to play sports and whatever else she wants to do.”

Raina: “I think her future looks amazing at this point.”