Sacred Heart Hospital's SENIORSpirit! program will present a free seminar on vertebral compression fractures on Thursday, Nov. 20, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in the Rehabilitation Center at The Club in Gulf Breeze.
The seminar will be presented by Dr. Michael L. Goodman, a board-certified neurosurgeon with Sacred Heart Medical Group. The seminar will help attendees understand the signs and symptoms of vertebral compression fractures, as well as treatment options.
A vertebral compression fracture occurs when the bones of the spine become broken due to trauma. While in many cases the trauma necessary to break the bones of the spine is quite large, some compression fractures can occur with little or no force. This type of fracture is common in elderly people, people with osteoporosis, and people with cancer. The vertebrae most commonly broken are those in the lower back.
Before joining Sacred Heart, Dr. Goodman most recently served as chief of neurosurgery at Forrest General Hospital and at the Hattiesburg Clinic. He obtained his medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1981 and performed his internship in surgery at Duke University Medical Center. He then completed six years of residency training and fellowship training in neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
He has advanced training in radiosurgery and stereotactic neurosurgery. Dr. Goodman was the first radiosurgery fellow at the University of Pittsburgh in 1988. He previously served as an attending neurosurgeon at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, where he started the fourth gamma knife center in the United States (and only the seventh in the world at that time).
As seating is limited, pre-registration is encouraged. To register, please call (850) 416-1620 or 1-877-416-1620.
Located at The Club at 1230 Crane Cove Blvd. in Gulf Breeze, Sacred Heart Rehabilitation focuses on patient education and provides treatments which help individuals to strive towards improving and maintaining their own health. The clinic is staffed with a full-time physical therapist, a physical therapy assistant, and an occupational therapist certified in hand therapy to help get patients back on their feet quickly after injury or illness and help reduce or eliminate pain. Services include aquatic therapy, orthopedic rehabilitation, post-surgical rehabilitation, post-traumatic and injury rehabilitation, sports medicine, treatment for neck and back pain, balance and dizziness therapies, and hand therapy.
Sacred Heart SENIORSpirit! is a free program for persons 55 and older. Benefits include free screenings, seminars, special in-patient benefits such as three free guest meal tickets (up to $5) per hospital stay, a monthly calendar of events detailing all SENIORSpirit! events, a discounted pre-paid lab coupon program, and a quarterly newsletter containing health and event information.
For more information, please call (850) 416-7000 or visit www.sacred-heart.org.
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