Procedure eases pain for Highland Park parade shooting survivor

For nearly two years, Liz Turnipseed has suffered physical and emotional pain from being shot during the 2022 Highland Park Independence Day parade, but says she is doing better thanks to surgery relatively new.

Like so many others, she woke up that July 4th morning expecting a busy day watching the parade with her family. However, a gunman opened fire on the festivities, killing seven people and injuring dozens more, including Turnipseed.

She was transported to Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital with injuries to her pelvis and leg. His organs and bones were not directly affected, but there was nerve and tissue damage. Additionally, she had a 14-centimeter wound on the back of her leg, causing severe pain. Doctors did not remove the shrapnel, believing it would be too risky.

Over the months following the shooting, Turnipseed was hospitalized several times, but she said her physical pain and mental anguish persisted.

“When you have chronic pain, it wears you down,” she said. “I tried to stay hopeful and focused because I had a full-time job, so I'm trying to manage all of that. But there were absolutely days where I was frustrated, and there was always anger because something was happening to me that should never have happened to me.

The constant burning and pain in her pelvis made simple walks outside or playing with her daughter difficult, if not impossible. Turnipseed's doctors eventually suggested she see Dr. Jason Ross, an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Ross used injections and medications that provided short-term relief, but long-term problems remained. He then recommended a dorsal root ganglion stimulator, or DRG.

“We were getting to the point where some of the more conservative options were exhausted, and I thought the DRG option was a reasonable option for her,” he said.

The DRG procedure — which has been around for about 10 years — consists of two parts, in which doctors insert a stimulator focused on the dorsal root ganglion nerves that serve the pelvis area, Ross said. After surgery, patients can use an iPod or iPhone app to change stimulation settings within prescribed limits.

Turnipseed researched online and chose to have the surgery in November. Her situation immediately improved and she said she continued to make progress in the months that followed.

“If I have a day where I have increased pain or something is happening, I can go into the app, select the part of my body where I'm having trouble and increase the intensity of the device” , she said.

DRG represents an evolution in spinal cord stimulation that, in general, has been around for about six decades, but has not always been effective for certain types of pain, particularly in the pelvis.

“It’s very effective in the right type of person,” Ross said.

Although it's unclear how often DRG is used, Ross said about 50,000 spinal cord stimulators are implanted each year.

Ross emphasized that DRG is not for everyone and it is not the first option he would recommend for someone suffering from a painful condition.

“Often you should exhaust more conservative management before considering surgery,” he said.

He said DRG is covered by some health insurance plans, but it depends on the patient's diagnosis.

“Sometimes that’s the hardest part,” Ross said. “I wish these services were accessible to everyone, but unfortunately this is the world we live in and it can be difficult to navigate. »

As for Turnipseed, she is still taking a high dose of a nerve pain medication with serious side effects. If the pain continues to improve, she hopes to reduce the dose.

She can now walk more, including taking the family dogs out or walking to an airport gate within a reasonable distance of the entrance. However, there is still a way to go.

“I’ve made a ton of progress,” Turnipseed said. “I'm infinitely better than where I was, but I still have pain. I can wake up the next day and feel pretty good, but before DRG that wasn't the case.

She's grateful for that first suggestion to meet Ross.

“I'm happy to have a doctor who is innovative and willing to work with me and help me get better,” she said.

Ross said: “Being able to restore some normalcy to his life is honestly one of the best accomplishments of my career.”