He was in agonizing pain from a birth injury – until a complex surgery “changed everything”

Tyler Theroux came into the world with a brachial plexus birth injury that kept his left arm dysfunctional and contorted in pain. As a child, he couldn’t engage in playground activities like the monkey bars, and his classmates would bully him about the injury. 

Eventually, Theroux dropped out of school to be homeschooled. While the teasing stopped, the pain didn’t: His parents watched him experience fresh agony with every growth spurt. The brachial plexus is the group of nerves that sends signals from the spinal cord to the shoulder, arm and hand, and that nerve pain kept him awake at night, despite multiple attempts at surgery and therapeutic treatment. 

Despite the pain, Theroux, 27, did his best to live a normal life, supported by his parents and brothers. He went to college to study recreational therapy, so he could help people with injuries like his, but a bad fall on ice — worsened by his inability to catch himself — aggravated his pain to new heights. 

For two years, he was essentially bedbound from the pain. 

And, he couldn’t use his left hand because of a nerve condition called radiculopathy — leaving him depressed and easily exhausted, missing family milestones and more. He couldn’t lift his hand above his waist, making it difficult to even get dressed by himself or tie a pair of shoelaces. 

The deterioration in his condition sent his parents, Ken and Michelle Theroux, into a frenzy of research.

“It was very, very difficult,” Michelle Theroux told CBS News. “We were constantly searching for answers, which we didn’t have in our area, really. We tried every therapy under the sun … Anything anyone suggested, we would do. But it just seemed to get worse.”  

Why are brachial plexus injuries difficult to treat? 

Brachial plexus injuries are uncommon, and they can be caused in a number of ways. Brachial plexus birth injuries like Theroux’s occur in 2 or 3 of every 1,000 live births, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Brachial plexus injuries can also happen to older children and adults. About 70% of traumatic brachial plexus injuries come from traffic accidents, the Cleveland Clinic says, and the number of brachial plexus injuries diagnosed each year is increasing. 

Mild brachial plexus injuries tend to heal on their own, or…