By Bryan Spyros
Rosa Muscarella knew something wasn’t right with her husband, Fillippo, back in April when the 75-year-old began complaining of persistent neck pain. She then began to notice her husband was getting confused and disoriented gradually and progressively, which became overtly noticeable during a family party in July. Muscarella says her husband left the party, and never came back.
“I called him and he says, I’m lost. He didn’t know where he was,” Muscarella explained. He once lost his way driving to his daughter’s house, where he used to visit several times in a week. He proceeded to be more forgetful of dates, naming America’s President etc.
The couple, from Monroe, went to St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport and quickly learned that Fillipo Muscarella had a brain tumor in a deep location. “The doctor said the tumor is causing memory loss and disorientation,” Muscarella said.
The Muscarella’s were referred to Sunil Manjila, MD, neurosurgeon specialized in endoscopic neurosurgery at The Hospital of Central Connecticut. In mid-July, Dr. Manjila performed what’s called a keyhole surgery that allows access to this pineal region tumor through a tiny opening in the skull.
“I used an endoscope to biopsy the tumor and divert the pent-up fluid that wasn’t able to flow adequately through the chambers in brain because of the obstructive ventricular tumor,” Dr. Manjila explained. The fluid diversion with “third ventriculostomy” helped alleviate the pain and memory loss that Fillippo Muscarella was experiencing.
“It was a big relief that he had no more pain which he was always complaining of,” said Rosa Muscarella. His memory loss has dramatically improved and he has now started driving to the local Italian club and playing his favorite sport Bocce back again!
Dr. Manjila says the keyhole procedure has tremendous benefits for patients with ventricular tumors. “It’s a state-of-the-art technological adaptation in neurosurgery which reduces the hospital stay, lessens the morbidity of blood loss and infection, as well as allows for a quick recovery,” Manjila says.
Fillipo Muscarella is now going through radiation treatments to help shrink the malignant tumor in his brain.
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Dr Sunil Manjila’s expertise in neurosurgery also proved beneficial for Tracey Zielinski, of New Britain. In March she came into The Hospital of Central Connecticut, rapidly getting paralyzed from the chest down, due to a large acute disc prolapse that was pushing on her spinal cord. She could not feel her leg positions at all, got catheterized for urinary retention in the Emergency Room and started getting weaker in both hand grips.
“She was just a few hours away from being completely paralyzed from the shoulder down,” says Dr. Manjila. Zielinski’s condition, according to Dr. Manjila, was a Grade A on the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale, which rarely improves with surgery and rehabilitation. The same day Zielinski came into the Emergency Department at The Hospital of Central Connecticut, Dr. Manjila began to operate in hopes of reversing the effects of the paralysis from the spinal cord compression – and it worked. She started regaining strength in her legs first within 24-48 hours of surgery. She was then transferred to a rehab facility.
Six months later, Zielinski is able to walk without assistance (often uses cane), stand steady with eyes closed and use her both hands with normal strength and dexterity. “When I came to the rehab facility I was in a wheelchair and that’s how I got around. Physical therapy was working with me every day and I got much much better,” Zielinski explains.
She credits Dr. Manjila with giving her the ability to walk again. “Somebody was looking out for me,” Zielinksi says. “Having him there that day was a godsend.”
