Published: April 30, 2026 | Updated: May 4, 2026
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Christy Mellons knew she needed surgery.
The 53-year-old was living in constant pain with extreme scoliosis and kyphosis. Her spine was pressing down on her lungs. Her neck was hunched so far forward she could no longer look straight ahead.
This would be her 18th surgery and by far the most complex: a full, neck-to-pelvis reconstruction of the spine.
“[I was] just waking up in pain every morning, and as soon as I did, the spasms started in my neck,” Christy said. “I was taking a slew of medicine that wasn’t helping at all. I didn’t have an appetite whatsoever and I kept losing weight. I didn’t want to go out of the house at all. Call it vain or whatever, but I was embarrassed. At the time, I looked like I was on death’s door. Everybody I knew thought I was going to die.”
Despite the fear, Christy trusted her surgeon. A yearlong preparation only reinforced that trust. She agreed to move forward, unaware of just how quickly her life would change.
Christy had her first surgery at age 9.
She had been diagnosed with a 90-degree curve in her spine. Scoliosis dominated her childhood. She went to school wearing body casts and braces. Medical restrictions kept her from most physical activities — diving, horseback riding, water skiing or anything that risked a fall on her tailbone.
“They wrote articles about me,” Christy said. “My mom had to sign release forms and everything else. It was wild.”
Christy’s memory of those days is still vivid. She remembers long hospital stays, daily stretches meant to prepare her body for surgery and the rods placed in her back. More surgeries followed, along with hormone therapies and frequent doctor visits.
“There was a time when people told me I’d never have children,” she said. “It was scary, because there was so much unknown.”
Still, Christy pushed forward. She attended medical school, determined to build a career in medicine. As she entered adulthood, things were going well.
Then, at age 32, an unexpected accident changed everything.
While vacationing in Florida with her family, Christy was a passenger in a car that was struck by another vehicle. The crash broke a fused spinal rod and knocked her right shoulder blade out of place.
“That was it for my medical career,” she said. “That wreck messed up school, work —everything. I tried to keep working while going to pain management, but it’s hard to care for patients while trying to care for myself.”
She went on medical disability and never returned to work.
Christy eventually found Norton Leatherman Spine and in 2024 was referred to Justin Mathew, M.D., one of its orthopedic spine surgeons and a specialist in complex spinal deformities. By then, Christy had undergone 17 operations. She weighed less than 100 pounds and could barely eat. When she did, food frequently fell out of her mouth because of the position of her neck.
“She had pretty significant disability,” Dr. Mathew said. “She was fused at multiple levels, and her neck was leaning forward so much that she could not maintain a level gaze.”
“My neck was sticking straight out,” Christy said. “I looked like the ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame.’ I couldn’t stand up straight at my lower back. It was so painful. There were spasms constantly in my neck. It was horrible.”
Together, Christy and Dr. Mathew developed a plan.
Dr. Mathew sent Christy for bone density treatments, physical therapy and strength training. They discussed surgical risks, expectations and recovery timelines: more than a year’s worth of preparation with the surgeon and patient working together.
“This period of preparation allowed me to get to know Christy,” Dr. Mathew said. “I was able to consolidate her care and act as a liaison among multiple services. We needed her bone health optimized. We needed some other medical issues tuned up. And we also had to build trust, because of the anticipated complexity of this surgery. I wanted to impress upon her the severity and risks of the procedure.”
Leading up to the procedure, Dr. Mathew designed and ordered custom spinal rods and meticulously planned every screw and correction— hours of preparation matching the surgery itself.
“I was so scared, but I trusted that Dr. Mathew knew what he was doing because of all his accolades in handling spinal deformities,” Christy said. “And bless his heart, he got a whole game plan together.”
On Sept. 10, 2025, Dr. Mathew performed a three-column osteotomy, a major spine surgery.
The procedure involved an incision from the cervical spine at C2 (an upper neck vertebra) to the pelvis, removal of hardware from Christy’s previous surgeries and a bony cut through the spine at the T2 (upper back) vertebra, around the spinal cord. This allowed Dr. Mathew to reshape all three columns of the spine and correct years of failed fusions, severe kyphosis and scoliosis. He used four custom-made rods and 25 screws to reconstruct her spine.
What was expected to take two days was completed in roughly nine hours and required complex coordination of many teams, along with Dr. Mathew and co-surgeon Nathaniel R. Toop, M.D., neurosurgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine.
“Timing was critical,” Dr Mathew said. “Her safety was my highest priority.”
After 53 years, Christy’s spine was aligned correctly.
“We basically had to cut her spine in half,” Dr. Mathew said. “This is among the most complicated and high-risk surgeries we do in the world of spinal deformity. There is a real risk of paralysis and neurological injury. But this is why it’s so important to be at a center capable of handling these kinds of cases. We’re able to treat so many patients and get them back to a normal way of life.”
Christy woke up from surgery feeling swollen and sore, but immediately noticed the difference.
“Going into surgery, I told her it could easily take three to six months until she felt like surgery was worth it,” Dr. Mathew said. “But the remarkable thing is that we changed her alignment so drastically she knew the difference right away. And she was very happy right away.”
Relearning how to move took time. With her spine fused, bending and twisting were no longer possible. Some stiffness remained, but the pain was gone. It allowed Christy to start living her life again. In the seven months since surgery, she’s walking, driving, attending church and spending weekends with her grandchildren.
“Dr. Mathew saved my life,” Christy said. “He really did. I went from the ‘Hunchback’ to standing straight as an arrow, and it’s all because of him. He made me feel like there was light at the end of the tunnel. Keep fighting. Don’t give up. Just give it to God and everything will be all right.”
For Dr. Mathew, cases like Christy’s are a reminder of why his work matters.
“It’s very gratifying,” Dr. Mathew said. “There’s a lot of gravity to the situation. When I saw Christy and first looked at her preoperative images, I knew right away this would be a complex case with a chance to really change her life. There are not a lot of centers nationwide that will take on this kind of work. But I knew we could be the ones to make her life better.”