After coping with persistent facial ache for six years, Pittsburgh Man now lived ache free due to ‘Angel’ Physician – CBS Pittsburgh

MT. WASHINGTON (KDKA) – It’s a very magical Christmas Eve for a family on the mountain. Washington.

After six years of excruciating pain, countless trips to the emergency room and doctors unable to pinpoint the problem, a young man is finally living pain-free.

For the first time in a long time, the Stefano Meghan Schiller family from KDKA tells them that they are smiling and planning ahead.

“Every year we had to take it one day at a time,” said Lynn Stefano.

Jimmy Stefano wants a job, a driver’s license and a pain-free life. His family says it’s finally possible thanks to an angel who works at UPMC’s Presbyterian Hospital.

“He’s my angel and that’s what I told him. And he says, “Oh, no, no, no, I’m happy to help,” said Lynn.

(Photo credit: KDKA)

The family is grateful for UPMC Dr. Raymond Sekula. He’s the reason Lynn, Jim and 23 year old Jimmy will be celebrating this holiday season.

“It was a miracle he was ready to take on Jimmy and perform the operation,” said Lynn.

Jimmy lived his entire life with osteogenesis imperfecta, known as the fragile bone disease. So he is no stranger to hospital stays and operations.

But his lifelong health and myriad surgeries pale in comparison to the sudden excruciating pain that shot him in the face six years ago.

“I just started getting a lot of pain on the right side of my face. … And I couldn’t eat or drink or talk or anything. It was very bad for a while, ”said Jimmy.

Jimmy’s mother said he had to drop out of high school. He just wanted to take his medication and lie in bed. Sometimes he tried going out with friends, only to return home shortly after in excruciating pain.

After several years of excruciating pain and no answers, the family met with Dr. Sekula.

“It’s often viewed as the worst pain man has ever known,” said Dr. Sekula, neurosurgeon at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. “What’s particularly interesting about his case is that people as young as Jimmy generally don’t.”

Dr. Sekula specializes in facial pain and a condition called trigeminal neuralgia. As soon as he looked at the MRIs on Jimmy’s brain, he saw the problem.

“His skull is shaped differently than you and I, and that’s a setting that stretches the nerve and pushes the blood vessel closer to the nerve,” the doctor said.

A blood vessel pressed against Jimmy’s trigeminal nerve was the reason he suffered from facial cramps for six years.

“He is a very rare patient with osteogenesis imperfecta and trigeminal neuralgia. It has likely been reported less than 20 times in the medical literature, ”said Dr. Sekula.

But with the operation he is now pain-free, a medical miracle in time for the holidays.

“When I went to the surgery, I just wanted it to work and now I just feel great,” Jimmy said. “I have no more pain. I can actually eat and talk and do anything I would have wished for a while ago. “