Science of survival

Special to ViewOlga Perez, 31, listens as Dr. Yevgeniy Khavkin tells her what to expect after her sacrectomy procedure performed Sept. 17 at Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, 3186 S. Maryland Parkway. Special to ViewDr. Yevgeniy Khavkin and his team perform surgery Sept. 17 to remove a cancerous tumor from Olga Perez?s sacrum at Sunrise Hospital & \uFEFFMedical Center. Advertisement

The sacrum is a large bone that connects the spine to the pelvis. It's the keystone of the skeletal structure, not the sort of thing you can easily imagine doing without. Olga Perez is doing just that, having undergone a sacrectomy on Sept. 17 to remove a cancerous tumor.

Without the operation, doctors say she would have died. With the operation, they say she's doing remarkably well.

The 31-year-old mother of three, a Whitney resident, appeared to be in good health until a year ago, when serious pain in her lower back threatened to sideline her. After a few false starts, the doctors realized they weren't dealing with a simple sore back.

"The doctor thought it was a pinched nerve at first," Perez said. "I was feeling better for a while, but in February the pain came back. I went in for an MRI, and they found the cancer."

The diagnosis called for the radical operation that is performed by only a handful of surgeons in the country. Fortunately for Perez, Dr. Yevgeniy Khavkin moved to Las Vegas five months ago to join the Nevada Spine Clinic, 7140 Smoke Ranch Road.

"The operation has never been performed before in Las Vegas," Khavkin said. "Before I moved here, she would have been on a plane to take care of this."

Khavkin was born in Moscow and moved to the United States with his family before attending the University of Chicago medical school. He did his residency training there and at the University of New Mexico before becoming an instructor in spinal neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Later he was director of functional neurosurgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

"The condition is pretty rare, and there's very few people in the country who can do this," Khavkin said. "Those that do it have a lot of experience, because most doctors refer their patients to them. Most people don't want to touch anything like this. When I was at Northwestern, I had cases sent to me from across the Midwest."

Perez is a bookkeeper for a construction firm and is the sole breadwinner for her household, which includes three daughters and her husband.

"I'm anxious. I just want things to get back to normal," Perez said on the day before the surgery. "I don't want people to pity me. I want to be strong. I haven't been able to take care of anyone for a while, or even myself. My oldest daughter helps me out a lot. I don't want her to have to take on so much responsibility."

Perez worked until the day before her surgery.

"They've been so good about it at work," Perez said. "They're so understanding about the doctors appointments."

The operation, performed at Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, took more than eight hours and involved a team of surgeons led by Khavkin. Dr. Jaswinder Grover, who founded the Nevada Spine Clinic, joined Dr. Eddy Luh, a vascular surgeon, and Dr. Samuel Sohn, a plastic surgeon, who assisted in closing the large opening required to remove such a substantial piece of anatomy.

The spine was attached with instrumentation and pins to the pelvis. Before going in, Khavkin couldn't be sure which integral nerves might be affected by the tumor. Limb movement, bowel and bladder control were at risk. The doctors were delighted that the tumor didn't involve those nerves.

"I was able to get the entire tumor out and save the nerve roots," Khavkin said. "She's still able to walk, and she's already been up."

A critical care specialist and an internal medicine doctor will assist with post-operative recovery, which the doctors estimate will leave Perez in the hospital at least a week.

"She's pretty weak, but she's getting better day by day," Khavkin said. "She's already been transferred to rehab. I suspect she's going to be able to walk without assistance."

Contact Sunrise and Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.