Dr. Pennicooke Operated on Santa Claus, Lumbar Endoscopic Transforaminal Decompression

Dr. Brenton Pennicooke was featured by ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) for treating Santa Claus!

Chanel 4, KMOV news recently interviewed Santa Claus, who had a health scare.
Every year, Santa takes time out of his busy holiday schedule to meet with several children at a local hospital in St. Louis, MO.
However, Santa was in incredible pain. He told the news channel that after nearly four years of debilitating back pain, his visits with children became increasingly difficult and he needed a cane to get around.
Santa admitted: “The pain was really excruciating, and I really thought last year was it, I was done,” He went on to explain: “Sometimes, I would get home and have tears in my eyes from all the pain I’d endured,” he said. “I tried so hard, but it was so painful.”
Unable to move or meet with children easily, Santa sought out medical advice.  One surgeon recommended a spinal fusion to mend his back pain, but he didn’t want that option, so he looked for a second opinion. He found Dr. Brenton Pennicooke, MD, a Spinal Neurosurgeon with Barnes Jewish St. Peters.

Dr. Pennicooke explained Santa’s condition: “In Santa’s case, he had a little cyst and that was pushing on a nerve. We performed a procedure called a lumbar endoscopic transforaminal decompression. During this minimally invasive operation, we were able to endoscopically pop the cyst, which took the pressure off the nerve in his spine.”

A few hours later, Santa was able to walk out of surgery.

Santa was thrilled with the result! He told KMOV news: “If I hadn’t had the surgery to begin with, I know I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Now pain-free, Santa is able to go back to visiting countless children at the hospital, and he hopes to continue his work at the North Pole.

“The future is limitless now,” he said. “I am really hoping to do this for many, many more years.”

You can watch the news segment posted on KMOV HERE: Santa Claus visits Children’s Hospital ahead of Christmas

About the Author:

Brenton Pennicooke, MD, MS is a board certified and spine fellowship-trained neurosurgeon at Washington University Physicians and Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Orthopedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering for the Department of Neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His academic credentials include undergraduate and graduate studies at The Johns Hopkins University, Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School with subsequent residency and fellowships at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center & Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Pennicooke additionally completed a post-residency fellowship in complex spinal reconstruction and minimally invasive spine surgery at University of California-San Francisco under the guidance of both neurosurgeons and orthopedic spine surgeons. He is an expert in utilizing artificial intelligence, advanced machine learning, and causal inference to analyze patient-outcome data.
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