Tony Harringer

Linda Harringer had an unexpectedly difficult labor when she had her son, Tony. His head emerged from the birth canal, but the rest of his body was stuck. Physicians at the hospital in their hometown tried unsuccessfully to push Tony's head back in so they could do a cesarean section, then tried putting pressure on her abdomen to push the baby out. When those efforts failed, they gave her general anesthesia to make her unconscious.

When Harringer awoke, physicians told her and her husband, Tony, the baby had pulled muscles and a dislocated shoulder from the pushing and pulling during delivery.

"Tony's right arm hung down and to the back, was unresponsive to touch and had very minimal movement," she says. "The physical therapist we saw gave us braces to put on our baby's hand and wrist and slings to promote muscle development in his arm."

After weeks with no progress, Tony had an electromyogram (EMG) to check for electric activity in the nerves in his arm. The results of that procedure confirmed the couple's worst fears. Tony had severe nerve damage. The family was referred to Allen Bishop, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon in the Brachial Plexus Clinic at Mayo Clinic, who explained that Tony's brachial plexus — the network of nerves derived from the spinal cord that controls the muscle movements and sensation in the shoulder, arm and hand — had been damaged. The nerves had reattached themselves incorrectly, which explained why Tony's movements weren't coordinated with the messages his brain sent to them.

Dr. Bishop suggested a procedure in which a nerve would be removed from Tony's calf and grafted into the damaged area in his shoulder.

"Tony is our only child, and we were scared to death," says Harringer. "We needed to do something because he had his whole life ahead of him. The graft seemed like the right thing to do. We trusted the surgeon."

Eight-month-old Tony emerged from surgery encased in a cast from his head to his right arm. He stayed in the cast for three weeks, then continued visits to Mayo Clinic to assess his progress. Because he hadn't been able to use his arm for most of his first year, Tony lacked muscle in the limb. Just before his third birthday, Tony had another surgery — Dr. Bishop and William Shaughnessy, M.D., a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, performed a muscle replacement and tendon transfer — followed by another cast and physical therapy.

"The surgery was miraculous," says Harringer. "Initially, we wanted Tony to have a chance to be like other kids and play sports. But then we realized we just wanted him to be able to hug us tightly with both his arms and clap his hands to the beat of a song — things that are more important than being like other kids."

Today, Tony is a normal 7-year-old who loves to ride his bike and hit baseballs with his dad.

"The physicians and nurses who helped us get to this stage were so good to us," says Harringer. "I don't think we would have been treated this way anywhere else. We consider ourselves to be some of the luckiest people in the world because of them."