Health Spotlight | Not too old for surgery anymore INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Doctors told an 88-year-old man he was too old for back surgery and would have to live with severe pain for the rest of his life. Now, he’s defying the odds and inspiring hope for elderly care. Larry Craver always loved helping family. “He would do anything and could fix anything. Just very energetic,” said a family member of Craver. But as he aged that energy changed to debilitating back pain. “If I’m in great pain, I cannot think. I certainly can’t help other people,” said Larry. So severe, it became unbearable to walk. Doctors told him 88 was too old for surgery. “They were just saying that this was permanent. No doctor thought that you could survive surgery. He told me with the severe pain he didn’t want to go on living and that was really very hard for me to hear,” said Larry’s family member. Then finally … a break. A neurosurgeon willing to consider a patient his age. “We got to meet him and was certainly not a frail 88-year-old,” said Dr. Timothy J. Chryssikos, a Neurosurgeon at the University of Maryland. X-rays showed Scoliosis … a cyst on his spine. And a condition called Spondylolisthesis, where a vertebra slips out of place. “I suspected that these were not the main drivers of his symptoms,” Chryssikos said. So, he opted for a standard decompression using an operating microscope instead of a high-risk spinal fusion open back surgery. “Essentially our goals of surgery were to remove bone and ligament from the back that were contributing to this severe pinching of the nerve roots,” Chryssikos said. Six months later, Larry is not only walking pain-free. He’s doing push-ups off his bedroom dresser. “Doing stuff, he did not have the ability to do for years. He’s got a new lease on life,” said Larry’s family member. Open spine surgeries like this one have slightly larger incisions than minimally invasive surgeries, but are considered less painful and have faster recovery times than spinal fusions. That’s because the technique involves making smaller incisions that typically cause less damage to surrounding muscles. This story was created from a script aired on WISH-TV. Health Spotlight is presented by Community Health Network.