Surgery Scores Homerun

Thanks to The Iowa Clinic Spine Center, assistant baseball coach Demathdian Tate, 35, is throwing balls again at batting practice.

Posted by The Iowa Clinic on Monday, July 27, 2015

Coach Demathdian Tate first noticed the pain in his lower back last July. It was becoming difficult to do the things he usually does— like throw balls at AIB College's batting practices. The pain worsened and his muscles weakened. “After an MRI last year, I was told I had a pinched nerve in my lower spine. I went to physical therapy and a chiropractor, but nothing seemed to help,” he says.

Determined to find relief, this past February, Tate made an appointment at The Iowa Clinic Spine Center, where he saw Amy Lynch, D.O., a Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation physician. Dr. Lynch diagnosed spinal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the open spaces in the spine that places pressure on the nerves Although most common among people over the age of 50, spinal stenosis can occur in younger people who are born with a narrowing of the spinal canal or who sustain a spinal injury.

"I don't have any of the shooting pains anymore."

-Demathdian Tate, Assistant Baseball Coach

With all potential diseases having been ruled out, Tate suspects he may have had trauma to the spine as a result of playing sports — for example, he was a football player in college. Lynch referred Tate to Joseph Sherrill II, M.D., a Neurosurgeon with The Iowa Clinic. Tate says, “They gave me all of the information I needed to make the right decision. I had surgery on March 28 and I was walking the next day.

“I don't have any of the shooting pains anymore. Every day I have a little more range of motion. I've returned to a lot of the activities that I was struggling with,” he says. “I give a 100-percent recommendation to the Spine Center.”

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