Fox Valley Santa pain-free thanks to medical technology

OSHKOSH, Wis. (WBAY) - A crush injury left the Fox Valley Santa in pain.

He couldn’t walk comfortably. Even gathering holiday wish-lists from children was a challenge.

“When you get that crying baby on your lap you really want to bounce them on your knee and that means being able to flex your foot and things like that,” the Fox Valley Santa said.

“All pain in the human body is processed in the spinal cord and eventually those signals go to our brain,” Dr. Mansoor Aman, interventional pain physician at Aurora Oshkosh, explained. “You can’t do all the things you enjoy. In his case, spreading cheer.”

Santa tried nerve injections... but decided to take a different approach. The team at Aurora Health Care in Oshkosh got him some relief in the form of special pain management technology called dorsal root ganglion stimulation.

“This stimulator sits along the spine in a very specific area and provides targeted relief in an area of the body that we need… in his case his left foot and ankle.”

The device sends tiny bits of electrical energy when pain hits... and it’s all controlled by an app on his phone!

“He has a couple different programs set with different intensities so he can dial it up and dial it down,” Dr. Aman said.

“I never imagined that we would be sitting here today saying, yeah, I got this little thing in my pocket and I can ‘beep, beep’ and I’m out of pain,” Fox Valley Santa said.

He said he’s feeling amazing... and hasn’t even touched his pain management app in weeks.