Nerve reconstruction surgeon restores boy’s ability to use his right arm

‘A really bad, bad situation’

Sebastian Heersink remembers the evening of Jan. 14, 2021, as a pretty regular Thursday at home. His wife, Emily, was out picking up their oldest daughter from theater rehearsal, and he was in the kitchen as his two younger children played near the front door.

He didn’t think much about the crash when he heard it. Chalked it up to kids being kids — probably knocked a picture off the wall, he thought.

Then he heard the scream.

He rushed over to find a dark red ooze expanding onto his 6-year-old son Byron’s white shirt from under his right arm. Byron was bleeding so much that it sounded like water was being poured onto the hardwood floor of the entryway.

He had slipped while playing on a rolled-up rug, sending him through a single-pane glass window next to the front door and badly slicing his arm. Sebastian, a doctor, immediately clamped down as hard as he could on the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

Seeing how severely his son was bleeding, Sebastian decided there was no time to wait for an ambulance, so a visiting friend drove him and Byron to the hospital.

“There was a moment when we were driving to the hospital where I’m holding him, and he says, ‘Dad, am I going to be OK?’” recalls Sebastian. “In that moment, you say, ‘Absolutely. No, you’re good.’

“But I knew this was potentially a really bad, bad situation.”

An uncertain outlook

Doctors were able to stop Byron’s bleeding and stabilize him. But the conversations that followed became bleak.

A vascular surgeon explained the stakes to Sebastian: “The goal is to save his life. We may sacrifice his arm to do that.”

Byron was taken by helicopter to Birmingham, about 200 miles away. Doctors there were able to save Byron’s arm, but the prognosis for what he’d be able to do with it was not good. The nerve damage was so severe that his arm hung limp. The best-case scenario that emerged in the days that followed? Maybe he’d be able to hold a grocery bag someday.

Byron, for his part, just rolled with it. His parents recall seeing him build with Legos after he got home, using a foot to help with things his right arm wasn’t available to do.

Did he ever worry about whether he’d be able to use his arm again?

“I kind of knew that I’d have use of it,” he says.

Searching for answers

Byron’s recovery began with his parents’ resolve to find the best care they could for him. That search pointed them resoundingly to Columbus, Ohio.

Plastic and reconstructive surgeon Amy Moore, MD, is known internationally for her work as a nerve surgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Sebastian recalls that he asked several fellow physicians to each give him a list of three surgeons they would take their own child to if they were in Byron’s situation.

Dr. Moore’s name was the only one to appear on every list.

A few weeks after his accident, Byron and his parents were on a call with Dr. Moore. Shortly thereafter, they were on a plane to Columbus.

“From the moment we talked to her, we felt completely at ease. She was calm, confident and kind,” Sebastian recalls.

Dr. Moore’s experience with complex nerve regeneration surgeries was apparent to Emily from the outset.

“Other surgeons were talking about grafting, and it sounded like there was a really rote prescription for how these types of injuries are treated,” Emily says. “Hers, to a layperson, was more nuanced, way more sophisticated, more ambitious.”

Learn more about Dr. Moore and her work

Giving Byron his mobility back

A long surgery followed. During it, Dr. Moore:

• Removed scar tissue that had trapped the nerves that control Byron’s elbow flexion and hand function
• Freed nerves in his axilla that were causing pain in the entire arm and chest
• Cut out a nonviable part of the nerve that allows the fingers to make a fist

“It was a very complex reconstruction involving multiple nerves at the brachial plexus,” Dr. Moore says, referring to the bundle of nerves in the neck and torso that connect to the nerves in the arm. “Most people wouldn’t go back into that highly scarred area with a vascular repair because of the risk to the blood flow and of losing the limb itself. We had to do it to give him his mobility back.”

There were countless hours of rehabilitation work back home in Alabama. The difference in Byron’s abilities was immediately evident to his mom. So, too, was her son’s resolve to stick to his treatments. Among them: four hour-long rehab sessions a week and an ever-evolving series of braces that made sleep uncomfortable.

“He just didn’t complain. And he didn’t seem afraid,” Emily says. “He was very, very diligent and determined and eager. I really give him a lot of credit for all of that.”

Along the way, Dr. Moore would regularly call Byron, much to his delight.

“She’s really great,” he says. “She'll always check on you, and she’s really kind.”

A full recovery

Today, a couple of scars on his right forearm are the only outward indication that anything ever happened to Byron.

A deft pianist, he has become ambidextrous. As one of the tallest kids in his fourth-grade class, he’s a stellar basketball player, but admits he loves soccer more. He takes regular tennis lessons and loves crushing opponents while playing as the San Francisco 49ers in Madden NFL 25.

He took up skiing during his recovery. Ever humble, he only briefly acknowledges that handling the poles “was a little bit hard” at first. It’s become his favorite way to spend vacation time.

Oh, and he gets up at 5 in the morning three days a week to work out — rowing, running, pushups, pullups, core work, you name it.

His parents speak glowingly about the work Dr. Moore did to help their son, and about what the entire process has taught them about Byron.

“I didn’t dare to dream that our son would be doing as well as he is,” Sebastian admits, reflecting on the days just after the accident. “I’m so grateful to be sitting here today saying our son is strong, healthy — an incredible person.”