At the end of 2016, Michael, An Adaptive person with disabilities, began experiencing neurological deficits, bodily dysfunctions, and pain emanating from the thoracic spine.
March 17, 2017, UCLA performed a CT Myelogram. It revealed a compressed spinal cord at T6. Yet, UCLA neurosurgeon Luke Macyzyn, MD, denied any injury.
In September 2019, Amer Khalil, MD, director of UC Irvine Spine Surgery, Dept of Neurosurgery, published a commentary advocating for AWS awareness and treatment, linked to the article titled, “Arachnoid Web of the Spine: Detection and Management,” by Kristin Della Volpe. He stated, “Arachnoid web is often misdiagnosed. Treatment usually involves laminectomy and excision of the arachnoid web. The success rate of surgery is very high with close to 90% of improvement in symptoms.” So, Michael appealed to UCI.
UCI neurosurgeon Frank Hsu, MD, confirmed the injury but denied Michael surgery.
In September 2019, Michael learned UCSD neurosurgeons published a research paper on AWS in June 2019, titled, “Neurosurgical Management of a Thoracic Dorsal Web: Case Illustration.” They concluded, “This case … demonstrates surgery as the safe and definitive treatment for painful symptoms caused by the indentation of the thoracic spinal cord. Decompression of the cord may cause immediate improvement in SSEP (somatosensory evoked potentials), providing immediate relief for the patients with dorsal arachnoid web induced back-pain.” So Michael appealed to UCSD.
October 2019, UCSD Neuroradiologist performed a CT Myelogram, confirmed the AWS and referred Michael to Joseph Ciaci and fellow Joel Martin, MDs. They met in December 2019. Ciaci confirmed the thoracic spinal cord injury. Yet, February 26, 2020, two days before the Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, they performed an unnecessary posterior cervical spine fusion surgery and mutilated Michael’s neck, leaving him fused in a kyphotic position.
To date, about a dozen surgeons have confirmed the need for cervical complex revision surgery to correct the mutilation. It will include osteotomies and the “Rotisserie” approach of turning him back and forth to allow for anterior and posterior access. They insist the torsion his body will experience during the complex revision could tear the already compromised thoracic cord. Hence, it must be postponed until the thoracic cord is repaired.
April 2020, the same UCLA neurosurgeon Luke Macyzyn, MD tried to force Michael neck to bend, inflicting much pain while he denied both the thoracic and the new cervical injuries. Macyzyn subsequently left UCLA.
In 2020 to 2021, UCLA denied Michael new imaging (they have to be repeated every year). Yet, February 28, 2021, UCLA published research on AWS in collaboration with UC Davis, titled, Neuroimaging findings and pathophysiology of dorsal spinal arachnoid webs: illustrative case.” So, Michael reappealed to UCLA.
Neurospine surgeon Andrew Vivas, MD, confirmed the urgency and promised Michael both surgeries. He swiftly scheduled anesthesia pre-op eval but then abandoned Michael for two months. When Michael complained to the clinic manager, Vivas, along with his colleague Elizabeth Lord, MD, and Risk Management, began a slanderous assault against Michael.
Mid-year, Michael discovered that in January 2021, UCSF published videos of AWS surgery, titled, “Decompression of a Dorsal Arachnoid Web of the Spine: 2-Dimensional Operative Video,” published through Operative Neurosurgery. It includes John P. Andrews and Andrew K Chan, MDs, as authors and performing surgeons. So, Michale appealed to UCSF.
November 2021, UCSF neuroradiology confirmed the cervical “iatrogenic kyphosis” and thoracic “displaced and severely flattened spinal cord.” Yet, the surgeon, Lee Tan, MD, would not meet with Michael in person before the surgery, despite his requests. Therefore, the surgeon ignored the other spinal injuries and comorbidities including Michael’s weakened heart. Due to Michael’s complaints, the surgeon Tan instructed Michael to admit Sunday morning to allow for cardiology evaluation before Monday’s surgery on 12/20, but on Sunday, the staff repeatedly denied him admission.
About 5:00pm, the hospital chief administrator intervened on Michael’s behalf, and the staff finally admitted Michael. By then, he was exhausted and missed the tests he was promised. Instead, that evening, a cardiologist simply listened to his heart through a stethoscope and stated, “I am willing to clear you.” Michael objected to no avail. The next morning, he canceled the surgery. Soon thereafter, UCSF Electrophysiologist ordered testing. In May, he installed a pacemaker. Michael would have died during the surgery.
Afterward, Michael invited the surgeon to resume surgical preparation, but he refused. Instead, he sabotaged Michael’s pursuit of the spine surgeries from other UCSF surgeons. Two of them, Vedat Deviren and Christopher Ames, MDs, refused him care.
In 2022, Michael appealed to UC Davis. Their paper with UCLA described the patient’s AWS as, “Axial imaging shows anterior cord displacement and severe flattening of the posterior aspect of the cord without evidence of a detectable mass.” Michael’s imaging was worse than those in their study. Yet, from the imaging, Chief of Neurosurgery, Kee Kim, MD, denied the AWS injury existed and thereby denied Michael surgery.
Kim was performing research for his paper on thoracic spinal cord injuries, when he dismissed and deprived Michael. Titled, “Acute Implantation of Bioresorbable Polymer Scaffold in Patients with Complete Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury: 24 Months follow-up from INSPIRE Study,” and published in the journal, Neurosurgery. It was named the “2023 Top Spine Paper of the Year,” by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS).
September 29, 2023, UCSF Neuroradiologist reconfirmed the spinal injuries.
CERVICAL findings: “Again, noted is the focal kyphosis centered at C7-T1 and T1-T2.”
THORACIC findings: “CT … again demonstrates anterior displacement and severe flattening. Volume loss of the spinal cord at T6-7 without visualization of an arachnoid web of cyst. Absent contrast anterior to the cord at T6-7 disc space … raises the possibility of a ventral dural defect with differential considerations including an occult arachnoid web.”
LUMBAR findings: “Multilevel facet degenerative changes worst on the left at L4-5 where facet hypertrophy combines with a broad-based disc bulge at this level resulting in narrowing of the left 4-5 subarticular zone with mass effect on the transiting left L5 nerve root.”
December 2024, UCSF Neuroradiology injured Michael. He had an anaphylactic reaction to the precautionary drugs for the iodine-based contrast used during the CT Myelogram. He had to be hospitalized. During the four days, not one Spine Center physician came to his room to evaluate him, let alone treat him. Likewise, the neuroradiologist who was previously a strong advocate and repeatedly referred to the AWS as severe, suddenly revised his assessments. No more comments on the cervical spine, and the thoracic cord was recharacterized as simply, “Flat,” and thereafter, he refused to speak with Michael.
In February 2025, another UCSF radiologist performed an MRI of the spine and stated,
CERVICAL: “Moderate right and severe left foraminal narrowing at C5-6.”
Thoracic: “History of probable ventral dural defect versus arachnoid bleb at T6-7. Unchanged anterior displacement of the cord at T6-7 with focal left cord myelomalacia (series 13, image 11).”
“Compared to November 1, 2021, no significant change in the focal displacement of the cord at T6-T7 with loss of ventral CSF at this level and unchanged focus of the left cord myelomalacia, most suggestive of a ventral cord herniation, though differential includes dorsal arachnoid web. Small disc protrusion at T7-T8 without significant canal stenosis, and ventral CSF si present at this level. Perineural root sleeve cysts, the most prominent including a T9-T10 on left, T10-T11 on right, T11-T12 on right. Minimal multilevel desiccation.”
LUMBAR: “Low lumbar facet arthropathy, similar compared to September 2023, given difference in technique.”
Arachnoid Web of the Spine (AWS) and/or Thoracic Anterior Spinal Cord Adhesive Syndrome (TASCAS) is a rare disease/injury. In 2019, about 43 cases were documented.
In July 2019, Bringham and Women’s Hospital published a prominent paper in Radiographics, titled, “Nontraumatic Spinal Cord Compression: MRI Primer for Emergency Department Radiologists.” The Introduction’s first sentence states, “Acute compressive myelopathy in the setting of minimal to no trauma is a medical emergency for which timely intervention is essential to minimize irreversible loss of neurologic function.”
By 2024, only 197 cases of AWS have been confirmed. Most published research findings state the disease is shown to be a focal adhesive lesion and is idiopathic — of unknown etiology; the pathological dura is often not visualized on imaging; swift surgical intervention is critical to restore neurological function and to prevent permanent paralysis.
Since he was poisoned, Michael has received a hundred procedures with sixteen surgeries to go but his care has been obstructed for almost nine years by the untreated AWS. His medical profile demonstrates Gadolinium has caused several structural abnormalities to his arachnoid membrane including meningeal perineural cysts, arachnoid web entanglement with the trigeminal nerve, arachnoiditis of the rear C2/3 Occipital Nerves, arachnoiditis of the front retinal optic nerve, and related cerebral atrophy.
AWS is therefore a consistent diagnosis — if physicians treat the patient and not only the images, if they do not use medicine as a tool for reprehensible retaliation, and if they do not abuse Adaptives as teaching tools for their diploma mills. The perplexing question? Why do the orthopedic spine surgeons insist the thoracic spinal cord injury is so severe that their work on the cervical, if performed first, could risk paralysis, yet, neurospine surgeons deny the severe thoracic cord injury even exists, let alone the emergency it presents–for nine years?