A Mack truck crashed into Emmy-nominated composer Steve Sandberg as he crossed an English road in the 1980s, driving him into a street sign and starting a 40-year battle with back pain.
Finally, last year, he had had enough. The Upper West Side pianist — who served as lead composer and musical director for Nickelodeon’s “Dora the Explorer” — was struggling to walk and carry props in concerts despite decades of physical therapy and chiropractic care.
“I was becoming very, very limited in what I could do,” Sandberg, 69, complained to The Post. “It was hard to get anywhere.”
Although he was nervous, he decided to undergo the three-hour minimally invasive surgery at NYU Langone Health in September 2023.
Dr. Charla R. Fischer says there are only a handful of American doctors who routinely do this revolutionary technique, called endoscopic transforaminal interbody lumbar fusion (TLIF).
Sandberg had a particularly difficult case—he had developed a cyst, a fluid-filled sac, in part of a joint in his spine, two of his lumbar vertebrae were unstable, and the space within that area had narrowed. As a result, he felt pain in both legs.
“If there is a lot of arthritis in [the facet joints]you can get a joint capsule, and that’s called a facial cyst,” Fischer explained to The Post. “It was pushing on his nerve roots and contributing a lot to his pain.”
Fischer said she made two small incisions — one for a camera and one for her tools — and removed the joint with the cyst and the entire intervertebral disc.
She replaced it with a disc implant known as a spacer and a bone graft to encourage the vertebrae to fuse. Using robotic techniques, she inserted screws and rods to stabilize the spine.
What sets this surgery apart, Fischer said, is that there is minimal disruption to soft tissue, leading to a faster recovery time.
“This really shows the ability to do what needs to be done in the spine without having to make big incisions or have a lot of pain afterward,” said Fischer, co-director of the Endoscopic Spine Surgery Program at NYU Langone Health. “This is really home-run surgery for some patients.”
This technique was created in South Korea, and Fischer says NYU Langone Health was the first to do it in the New York area. She estimates that she performs this procedure 40 times a year.
For Sandberg, this was his second life-changing surgery.
He severely damaged his liver, broke six ribs and punctured a lung in the truck crash overseas. Going back was much easier this time.
Fischer said Sandberg was doing well two weeks after the surgery and was fully recovered after six weeks. There is usually a three-month recovery process for the non-endoscopic version of TLIF.
Sandberg didn’t need a cane or walker to get around, but used medication to manage pain.
He says he took advantage of the recovery period to walk and stretch every day — and even lost 30 pounds.
Sandberg can now ride his 10-speed bicycle five or six miles and walk several blocks without pain. Carrying a 20-pound keyboard is no problem, and it feels “20 years younger.”
“Ten months later, I have my life back,” Sandberg wrote. “I actually didn’t regret it, it was a fantastic thing to do.”
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