Marine Corps veteran overcomes spinal cord injury pain with help from UHealth/Jackson Neurosurgery and Lynn Rehabilitation Center

By: Krysten Brenlla

As a Marine Corps veteran, former firefighter, competitive body builder, and mom, there wasn’t a thing Julie Casal couldn’t accomplish if she’d set her mind to it.

That all changed the moment the 53-year-old suffered a spinal cord injury.

“I always had the mentality to push through the pain. It was hard for me to listen to my body, especially after my injury,” Casal said. “I injured my lumbar and cervical spine; I was considered an incomplete quadriplegic.”

After her first spinal cord surgery, she started physical therapy and was walking again. However, a year later, the left side of her body went numb.

“One day, when I was driving home after picking up my kids from school, I started getting this weird sensation,” Casal said. “That’s when everything got worse.”

After several months of discomfort, Casal decided to go to the hospital. She was told her cervical spine was compressed, causing pain, weakness, and occasional paralysis in her arms and legs.

The spinal cord compression resulted in autonomic dysreflexia, a medical condition in spinal cord injury patients where minor issues, like pain below the injury, can trigger an extreme response.

“I started to retain fluid, my blood pressure would spike through the roof, and my heart would start racing,” Casal said. “Whenever I had a flare-up, I would no longer have the sensation to go to the bathroom – I’d have to go to the hospital and they would have to force me. It was the worst pain I’ve ever been through.”

In 2021, Casal underwent a spinal cord fusion surgery, which was supposed to release pressure on her spinal cord and relieve her autonomic dysreflexia. However, her symptoms never went away – Casal’s blood pressure continued to spike and she kept feeling numbness.

“Every time I was hospitalized, they would tell me there was nothing wrong with me,” she said. “But I knew my body, and I knew this wasn’t normal.”

Two years and six hospitalizations later, she found hope when she met Timur Urakov, MD, a UHealth – University of Miami Health System neurosurgeon at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

“When we first saw her imaging, it was obvious that her previous fusion procedure didn’t heal completely,” Dr. Urakov said. “Sometimes, it takes a long time to fuse, and this is commonly missed. She needed urgent surgery on her neck and back.”

On October 19, 2023, Casal underwent a successful cervical decompression and spinal fusion procedure on her neck.

After surgery, she spent two days in the hospital recovering before being transferred to Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial.

When she arrived at Lynn Rehabilitation Center, her biggest challenges were putting weight on her legs, gaining mobility in her arms, and the fatigue she suffered while exercising.
However, through physical and occupational therapy, she slowly improved.

In April 2024, Dr. Urakov performed a second fusion surgery on Casal’s back. She then continued therapy at Lynn Rehabilitation Center.

“With help from my therapists, I started doing little things,” Casal said. “I would walk to the end of my driveway, then push myself to walk 15 minutes at the beach to walk on the sand, and 15 minutes back home. I always pushed myself more and more.”

After weeks of hard work, she went from being unable to move, to walking three laps around the Lynn Rehabilitation Center floor with a walker.

“Through one of my occupational therapy sessions, I wanted to show my appreciation to the team, so I made chili in the hospital kitchen,” Casal said. “The creativity and ability to do that, and not think of the pain as I’m standing and cooking, was unlike any other center I’ve been to.”

Today, Casal continues to work on her mobility through physical therapy. She’s been able to walk on her own – without a walker – for at least 40 minutes, and is no longer suffering from back or neck pain.

She participated in this year’s National Veterans Wheelchair Games in New Orleans, where she won three silver medals. In the future, she hopes to compete as a bikini body builder again.

Casal credits the UHealth/Jackson Neurosurgery team, and the rehabilitation teams at Lynn Rehabilitation Center, for helping her get back to what she loves the most.

“I’m forever grateful to my caregivers,” she said. “They’ve left such a footprint in my heart. With God’s help, they gave me my life back.”