Peter Conway, a husband and father of four, suffered months of relentless neck, arm, chest and back pain - where the only way to ease the agony was to lie flat on his kitchen floor.
This was until he underwent ‘life-changing’ neck surgery [a cervical disc replacement] at the Nuffield Health Tees Hospital in Stockton, where amazingly he was in-and-out of hospital within a day!
“After the surgery it was unbelievable, the pain had completely vanished,” said Peter, aged 41 of Billingham near Middlesbrough. Peter is married to childhood sweetheart, Andrea. They’ve recently celebrated their sixteenth wedding anniversary and have three sons, Sam (aged 15), Alfie (aged 13), Billy (aged 11) and a daughter, Annie (aged 9). Peter works for an oil and gas terminal in Middlesbrough, where he’s been employed for the past twelve years. Before that he worked offshore. He said: “I live an active life at work and at home. I love nothing better than a kickabout with the football or going out running with my kids. I was devasted to think that doing these day-to-day things with my family could have been taken away from me forever.”
Peter added: “The excruciating pain meant at one point I was thinking along the lines of ‘would I ever work again?’ But as a proud man and the main breadwinner in the house, my overriding fear was not being able to provide for my family.”
Peter’s first step on the road back to recovery started when he was referred to the Nuffield Health Tees Hospital through a private medical insurance programme he signed up for at work. Under the care of surgeon Mr Tai Friesem, Peter was given an MRI scan, which showed severe damage to a cervical disc in his neck.
Before any surgery was considered, the consultant first suggested a 6-12 week ‘conservative management plan’ involving prescribing pain killers and a course of intensive physiotherapy.
After much deliberation and advice, it was decided that Peter would undergo the cervical disc replacement surgery. Peter said: “I knew that something drastic had to be done as I didn’t fancy being on strong medication for the rest of my life and not being able to enjoy time with my family. It was a risk I was willing to take.”
Mr Friesem has been a consultant with Nuffield Health Tees Hospital for over seventeen years. It’s very rare to perform cervical disc replacement surgery as a day case but Mr Friesem drew upon his vast technical knowledge from being one of the most experienced consultants in this procedure to successfully deliver Mr Conway’s operation.
Mr Friesem is a respected medical practitioner and teaches all over the world, in places as far reaching as Canada, China, Europe, Korea, South Africa and the United States of America where he has educated trainee surgeons about the technical aspects of this cervical procedure.
Mr Friesem, said: “The operation was a great success. Mr Conway is a fit and healthy young man, which made the decision to choose the route towards surgery an easier one. I was proud to make my own little piece of history by delivering the first cervical disc replacement day case of its type at this hospital. “The quick turnaround and recovery time of the patient shows to other people in the same position just what is possible at Nuffield Health Tees Hospital. These are life-changing operations that can get people’s lives back on track.”
Peter concluded: “I would always opt again for the surgery, every time. It gave me instant pain relief. I believe there’s no need to suffer if you don’t have to.”
