Patient Stories

Bettina Daloia, RN

Bettina Daloia’s Story

“When you meet with Dr. Neubardt, he is totally focused on you and your situation.”

Bettina Daloia felt “something pull” in her lower back as she pulled her son in his little red wagon along the sandy beach in Cape May, New Jersey. As an emergency room registered nurse at White Plains Hospital, she tried to take care of her back on her own for a time. “When I started feeling numbness and tingling in my leg, I realized there was something larger here than I could take care of myself.” Bettina’s colleagues at the hospital emergency department recommended Dr. Neubardt and she was impressed that he specialized in spine surgery. She met with Dr. Neubardt at his office to review the MRI report and she felt comfortable about the idea of surgery, but worried it would put her out of commission and unable to care for her son. “But, after eight months of numbness and tossing and turning at night, I knew I had to do something.” Problems with blood clotting made Bettina’s case a challenge in that coordination with other physicians was necessary.

Bettina’s procedure of endoscopic microlumbar discectomy was performed as outpatient surgery and she was grateful to go home that afternoon. “After the surgery, I was a bit sore, but I felt really great. After two weeks recovery time, I returned to work in the emergency room and felt completely back to normal. No more limping.” Bettina was also concerned about privacy during her procedure, since she is an employee of the hospital, and found Drs. Neubardt and Stern to be “very respectful of my privacy.”

Bettina relays the story that while at work one day following her surgery, “I felt as if a stitch had ‘popped’ in my incision site and was worried about it. My friend in the ER suggested I call Dr. Neubardt who was performing surgery in the hospital upstairs that day. ‘Oh no,’ I thought. I didn’t want to bother him. But, I decided to call and a little later on Dr. Neubardt came walking into the ER. I asked if he was here to see a patient. ‘I’m here to see you,’ he said. I was surprised and delighted!”

“When you meet with Dr. Neubardt, he is totally focused on you and your situation. I never felt once as if I was taking up his time. I felt no fear about undergoing surgery for my back because he did such a great job informing and educating me about the procedure.”

As a professional, Bettina says of Dr. Neubardt: “He has a great bedside manner, is very thorough with his evaluation and assessment, gives tremendous follow-up care, and is very reassuring and educational in his approach with patients.”

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