Patient Stories

Madina Lake bassist, Matthew Leone, suffered severe closed head injury after a brutal attack this past summer. He was treated at the University of Illinois Medical Center by neurosurgeon Dr. Sergey Neckrysh. According to Leone, “My early prognosis was that I probably would not be able to walk or talk, but now I am able to play my bass and record”. Leone added “The doctors were diligent, thorough, and incredibly informative. They also exuded an element of psychological help to keep me in the right frame of mind.” Leone was transferred from another local hospital to be treated at University of Illinois Medical Center. “I could not be happier with UIMC. I feel like something greater intervened that brought me there. They saved my life.”

In January of 2003, Jim Wolfe found his wife Annette, in their basement, unconscious. According to Wolfe, first responders were quick to recognize Annette’s condition. “After a quick emergency head CT scan, I was informed by the attending emergency room physician,’ I can’t handle this, and neither can this hospital, she’s going to University of Illinois Chicago’”. At UIMC, neurosurgeon and Department Chairman, Dr. Fady Charbel, successfully treated Annette Wolfe’s ruptured aneurysm. “What more can I say about Dr. Charbel? There aren’t enough words in the English language for me to describe my feelings about him. There has never been a doubt in my mind he saved my wife’s life, as well as her mental stability,” according to Wolfe.

On October 23, 2006, 38 year old Maria Micheletto was in her Lockport, IL home when she was struck with the “worst headache of [her] life”. By the time she arrived at a local hospital, Micheletto was paralyzed from the waist down. She sat in the ER waiting room for three long “excruciating” hours while a series of misdiagnoses occurred. Micheletto was then flown to UIC Medical Center where Dr. Amin-Hanjani performed a craniotomy to repair her ruptured brain aneurysm. “Dr. Hanjani’s staff was fabulous when I was in the hospital. While in the ICU, the nursing care was above great.” Micheletto, who was inspired by the care she received at UIC, is now a licensed CNA and is pursuing her RN degree.

                        “Dr. Slavin has been great!”

“I was seeing a neurologist before going to Dr. Slavin. The neurologist said that there was nothing more he could do for me. I was on the highest dosage of the meds and more would not help. I know that was true, the pain was getting worse and it was constant. He said that if I didn’t look into surgery, it was likely that I would end up killing myself because of the pain. So, I started looking into the different kinds of surgeries and emailed some places. Dr. Slavin wrote back to me the same day I contacted him (7/2/08) and told me that he considered himself to be one of the very few who do it well. He went through a lot of trouble for a surgeon with many other things to do”. Dr. Slavin performed the surgery on November 21, 2008, and Barrera said, “I have been totally pain free ever since. I email him once a year to let him know how I am doing and every year he writes back. He helped me through the most (physically) painful thing of my life. I didn’t feel as alone as I could have. As soon as I was out of recovery, the pain was gone! It was the best hospital experience I have ever had.