Summary
A patient from Canada had been suffering from debilitating chronic lower back pain for years, unable to sit without severe pain, working at a standing desk, and nearly in tears during a 45-minute drive to physiotherapy appointments that provided no lasting relief. After cycling through medications, years of physiotherapy, and spine clinic consultations with no resolution, he spent two and a half years researching alternatives online before discovering Dr. Ara Deukmedjian at the Deuk Spine Institute. He traveled to Melbourne, Florida, where Dr. Deukmedjian performed the Deuk Laser Disc Repair® on two lumbar discs. Less than 24 hours after surgery, he was sitting comfortably and completely pain-free — without opioid pain medication — describing the experience as almost unbelievable after years of chronic suffering.
Transcript
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: I’m here with a patient who traveled from Canada for his lower back. He’s been living in back pain for many years. I’ll let him tell you a little bit more about that. But he had the Deuk Laser Disc Repair® done yesterday — less than 24 hours ago. And now he’s here sitting here. Are you having the pain that you came here with?
Patient: No, no, I’m not. I’m actually sitting. And that was hard for me before. So that’s like my gauge that it’s actually done something that’s worked. I couldn’t sit for years. Always I stood, right? I stood eating. I stood doing my work. I have a stand-up desk. I’m actually sitting. So like, to me, this is amazing.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: And you had the Deuk Laser Disc Repair® to fix two of your discs in your lower back. We tested them in the surgery and they were indeed causing a lot of pain for you. You can see in the video that we use a laser to go in and clean out the annular tears in the back of the disc that were causing your pain. So that pain that you had before surgery — is it still there or is it gone?
Patient: Yeah, it’s gone. It’s like I’m in disbelief that it’s not there.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: We didn’t give you pain pills to make it go away, did we?
Patient: No, no. I tried to avoid them as much as possible because I wanted the pain to be real — so I could figure out how much pain I was actually in. Apart from just taking one after the operation, right? Because it kind of felt like I’d picked something heavy up — so I’m referencing that to prior pain that I’ve had. It didn’t really take anything other than that, yeah.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: So you took one muscle relaxer last night and that’s it?
Patient: Correct, yeah.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Yeah, and that only lasts for about six to eight hours. So right now you have no medication in your system. This is natural. This is how you’re going to feel.
Patient: I’m in disbelief. Because being in chronic pain, at some point I thought I was just — not there. And it was almost crazy, right? But you know, you do what you did, and I just can’t thank you enough. It’s amazing.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: You’re welcome. And tell me — you’re from Canada. I know it’s hard to get good medical care even in the United States, but I heard Canada is difficult. What were you offered for your back?
Patient: Well, it was kind of a step-by-step process because they want to do a process of elimination. Initially it was some pills, some drugs, a lot of physio. That’s what my doctor said — physio, physio, physio. And I did that and it still wouldn’t go away. Then it was okay, consultation with a spine clinic, and kind of going down that road. It just took a long time for all that to happen. Meanwhile, you’re suffering in pain.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Correct.
Patient: Yeah. I remember specifically when I was driving to my physio appointment — that was a 45-minute drive — and I couldn’t sit. I was almost crying driving to it to get a bit of relief, and then driving 45 minutes back. And I was like, this is crazy. This is nuts. There’s got to be a better way. And then that’s when I got online. I did a lot of research — like two and a half years of research on anything and everything — to learn about the condition, to learn about what I had. Once I got a little more educated on it — I’ll be honest, in the beginning I was scared about spine surgery. I’m like, no one’s touching my spine. Absolutely not. And so that’s why I was hitting the physio hard. But as soon as I started to understand, and then I found Dr. Deuk online, it caught my interest. I’m like, this can’t be real. I thought it was just a marketing gimmick. I saw more, and then he had videos online and I was going through all of those. And I had a bunch of questions. And the more videos I watched, the more questions he answered. And then I even asked a couple of questions myself. I got in there — I’m not a social media guy — I was just trying to educate myself more and more. Finally, I’m like, I pulled the trigger. I’m like, okay, I’ve got to do this. Because I looked at other surgeons, other surgeries — you can name it, I’ve looked it up. This one I found to be the most effective.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: And you’ve got Henry to thank for the videos. Henry, you’re touching lives with your work. We have a whole team — 75 people working here — and all of it’s geared towards this one moment where people come and get relief.
Patient: I can’t believe the operation is amazing that you have here. Thankful to everyone — all of your staff and your people — because it has made the whole experience. When do you head back to Canada?
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Saturday — so a couple of days from now. Well, is there anything else you want to say wrapping up the conversation?
Patient: No, I’d like to praise you. Because it’s just amazing. And I’d like people to know that you’re the man.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Well, thank you. I can’t take all the credit, obviously. I’ll take it on behalf of Deuk Spine Institute, which really deserves the credit — all the people here that make it happen. They make my job easy. Well, congratulations.
Patient: Thank you very much.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Enjoy life.
Patient: Thanks.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: And hopefully we don’t see you anymore.
Patient: Thank you.
The Better Way: Deuk Laser Disc Repair®
This patient traveled from Canada to Deuk Spine Institute after years of failed conservative treatment; including prolonged physiotherapy, medications, and spine clinic consultations. Two lumbar herniated discs were causing chronic debilitating lower back pain that left him unable to sit. Dr. Ara Deukmedjian performed the Deuk Laser Disc Repair (DLDR) to endoscopically clean the posterior annular tears in both discs and eliminate the source of his chronic back pain — with no opioid pain medication, no hospital stay, and permanent results confirmed less than 24 hours after surgery.