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DENVER (KDVR) — Gina Hargett-Freed is finally back on her bike and feeling good after spinal surgery to correct scoliosis.
“I’m doing fabulous,” the Littleton woman said with a smile.
Hargett-Freed suffered from scoliosis for years and said it got worse as she got older, plus she was dealing with rheumatoid arthritis.
“When I went into menopause is when things really sped up,” she said.
Hargett-Freed had a 60-degree curve in her spine that pitched her to the side and forward. She had incredible pain, needed a cane to walk, and at times felt hopeless.
“Once it started getting really bad, it just put me on the couch, and I just I couldn’t do anything,” she said.
Hargett-Freed had two surgeries that did not help before she found a new doctor and new hope.
Dr. Shay Bess is a spine surgeon at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver.
“Her pain levels were so high, and she was so debilitated,” Bess said.
He took out the implants from the former surgeries and performed a new multi-level fusion.
“Then, also doing a thing called osteotomies, which is releasing the bone so that we can get correction to pull her spine over and then stabilizing it in a much straighter position,” Bess said.
The surgery was a success, and Hargett-Freed is grateful.
“There’s joy in my life again,” she said.
Now, she and her husband are planning trips and looking forward to the future. She hopes other patients will look into their medical options, no matter their age.
