Practice News

New Jersey Reconstructive Plastic Surgeon Dr. Russell Ashinoff from the Institute for Advanced Reconstruction was recently featured on AM 1450 WCTC, The Voice of New Jersey, for his miraculous reconstructive surgery on a 15-year-old boy who had his hand mangled by a commuter train. The podcast for Dr. Ashinoff’s interview is available here.

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December 28, 2011 at 2:20pm

Dr. Russell Ashinoff will be on 1450am WCTC The Voice of Central Jersey to discuss an amazing story of saving a New Jersey boys hand.

New Jersey-Based Reconstructive Plastic Surgeon Dr. Andrew Elkwood Performs “Miraculous” Complex Hand Surgery

“I figured this is as good as it gets,” thought Kaelen Green at age 16, after six long years of therapy for a nearly paralyzed right arm and hand. But then, at age 28, she was inspired by a spiritual teacher to “take action and achieve more healing” in her life. She Googled paralysis treatment and The Institute for Advanced Reconstruction popped up. She had found the place, and the man, who would change her life: Dr. Andrew Elkwood.

Green’s story starts in Santa Fe, New Mexico when at 10 years old she lost control of her bicycle. Thrown from the bike, she suffered a massive brain hemorrhage that paralyzed the right side of her body. The damage was so severe that she had to re-learn how to walk and talk. Her parents dismissed the doctors’ claims that Kaelen would be in a wheelchair, and instead began what would be a steady stream of consultations with a slew of both traditional and alternative therapy practitioners.

Green, who was right-handed before the accident, also had to adapt to using her left hand—a tall order considering that at that young age she already was inclined toward drawing and painting. “’Necessity is the mother of invention’,” she says of her ordeal. “My right hand and arm were limp and floppy in the beginning, and then my hand balled up into a solid fist with my wrist bent forward. I spent six years in physical therapy and a good portion of my adolescence in hospitals.” By 16, Green figured she had reached the limit of what could be done, stopped her therapy, and went to art boarding school.

She ultimately majored in painting in college and went on to develop an artistic style she calls magical realism—an all-pencil approach she does left-handed. Seventeen years after her fall and countless sessions of physical therapy, her life took a turn.

“I went to the (Institute for Advanced Reconstruction) site and read about the amazing things they were doing for paralysis and that Dr. Elkwood was on the cutting edge in this area. I was hesitant to resort to surgery, so I wanted the very best doctor and had the gut instinct that he was ‘the one,’” says Green, right then deciding to fly across the country from Santa Fe to New Jersey to see him.

Her instinct proved correct. Thirty seconds into her consultation with Dr. Elkwood, he offered his expertise, theorizing that a muscle in her arm was confused neurologically and in a perpetual spasm causing her hand to close. He proposed a complex reconstructive surgery on her right hand and forearm that would excise the muscle spasm, fuse joints, and cut and lengthen tendons and re-attach them to different muscles. Green underwent the two-and-a-half-hour surgery on October 26, 2010 at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. After a tough bout with pain medications following her procedure, she returned home to recover and begin six months of physical therapy. The results since then have been what she describes as “miraculous.”

“I can open my hand for the first time in 18 years and have a lot more function overall. I also have better balance, and my fine motor skills and dexterity have improved,” reports Green, who now swims twice a week and is once again fully involved in her art. “I feel really grateful to have my hand back in a way I never thought I would, and am constantly surprised at what I can accomplish.”

Says Dr. Elkwood, “Kaelen is inspirational to me as a surgeon in many ways.  Her drive, determination, and spirit have no peer, and clearly, attributed strongly to her final result.  Her case also brings up a great frustration.  There are so many patients out there with similar medical circumstances that can be helped, if only they and their caregivers knew about further options.  Too often patients with certain types of paralysis are maximally rehabbed, then given a pat on the back and a pep talk; yet, sometimes more can be done.  Our goal is not to give patients false hope but rather, to maximize their potential function.  Sometimes that means small gains, sometimes -as in Kaelen’s case- the gains can be life-altering.”

Green is considering a second surgery, but in the meantime she is concentrating on a writing and drawing project and enjoying the community of artists with whom she recently hosted an open house at the New School Studios on Upper Canyon Road in Santa Fe. Of her experience with Dr. Elkwood and the staff at The Institute for Advanced Reconstruction, she says “They were great to me–always my ally and constantly advocating on my behalf with my health insurance.  As for Dr. Elkwood? I trust him implicitly and know that I’m in very good hands.”  Hands that now function on a whole new level, thanks to Dr. Elkwood.

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