Parent Blog: Jolene Paulson

In their words

Jolene Paulson
Hastings, NE

Blaine fell when he was 2 years old and needed neck surgery, and Arnold Menezes, MD, a pediatric neurosurgeon with University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, discovered he had a cervical stenosis – the protective area around the spine had degenerated and become narrow. Dr. Menezes monitored the situation and when Blaine was 3 years old he had neck surgery to repair the anterior cervical spinal cord stenosis. He had a second surgery in 2009, when he was 10 years old.

We spent three months at UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital in 2002 with a wonderful team of doctors and nurses that cared for our son. Dr. Menezes saved his life by correcting an extremely rare condition, fusing a rib graft to relieve compression on Blaine’s spinal cord.

I would always recommend UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital for any kind of surgery or procedure and especially neurosurgeon Dr. Menezes. His success and his knowledge has given us our son for the last 20 years, and the staff and environment kept our family comfortable.