UAMS Orthopedic and Spine Hospital celebrates success stories one year after opening

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – One year after the opening of the UAMS Orthopedic and Spine Hospital, the stories coming out of the building are just as groundbreaking as the new space.

Patient Jolee Camp knows that firsthand. When she was just 15, she started experiencing debilitating back pain; at times so horrible that she had to use a wheelchair and was unable to walk.

“There was a horrible, just like shocking pain sensation,” Camp said. “I always had some level of back pain, and then it just continued to get worse.”

After five years of numerous doctors trying everything from injections to nerve burns, she was finally referred to UAMS, where chronic pain specialist Dr. Johnathan Goree gave her a diagnosis – and a solution.

“Multifidus Dysfunction,” Goree said. “Basically, the muscles of her back really were acting dysfunctional and weren’t allowing her… to keep her posture in order to prevent back pain.”

Goree suggested an implantable device called ReActiv8, a battery connected to electrical leads that help stimulate and rebuild muscle. In November 2022, Camp got the surgery and only a few months later, saw the results.

“Just immediate effects, like I could walk and stand and go and do things from more than ten minutes without having to sit down,” Camp said.

Goree said it’s just one example of the cutting-edge technology at work in the new hospital, saying, “the ethos of this building is really to deliver state-of-the-art care for Arkansans.”

Now, nearly two years after surgery, Camp is virtually pain-free and able to live life as normal, even able to wear heels and walk across the stage at her college graduation; something she never thought she’d be able to do.

“It’s like I have a whole different outlook on life,” Camp said.

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