Spinal Cord Stimulation Ends 10 Years of Pain

For 10 years, Subhojit “SC” Chatterjee suffered terrible pain in his ankle. He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t walk far enough to go grocery shopping and he couldn’t even go out to dinner without having to cut it short because of the pain.

In addition to the pain, Chatterjee says his ankle would swell up and turn colors, so much so that he didn’t even want to go outside in shorts and flip-flops.

It was a terrible way to live, he says, and it was leading to depression.

Finally, the 46-year-old Scranton man consulted the pain management specialists at Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute. Today, thanks to his implanted spinal cord stimulator, his pain is nearly gone and he has his life back.

Chatterjee was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, a rare neurological condition that can cause long-lasting pain and inflammation after an injury or medical problem. “I hadn’t even heard of that disease before,” he says.

Chatterjee believes his condition can be traced to a serious soccer injury 20 years ago. He had two previous surgeries, one in Los Angeles and one in India, where he underwent an ankle stabilization. The ankle was OK for a few years, but then the pain got much worse.

“The pain was really bad,” he says. “I tried everything including steroid injections, pain medications and narcotics. The meds didn’t even touch it.

“I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t walk long distances. I couldn’t even sit sometimes,” he says. “The pain really affected my quality of life.”

In February 2025, Chatterjee saw Nirmal Shah, DO, a pain medicine and interventional pain specialist with Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute. “Dr. Shah suspected that I had nerve damage, and suggested I try spinal cord stimulation.”

With spinal cord stimulation, tiny wires are inserted into the epidural space between the bones of the spine and the nerves of the spinal cord. A low-level electric current, from a device implanted under the skin, travels down the wires to the nerves and relieves the pain.

 “The procedure was beautifully done and I had no problem healing. Now, all that pain is gone. I have 80 to 90 percent relief,” Chatterjee says.

He has a small controller that he can use to adjust the stimulation level, depending on how he is feeling. Once a week, he slips on a special belt and lines it up with his implant to wirelessly charge the batteries.

No matter where your pain, Dr. Shah says, the pain signals get to your brain by traveling up the spinal cord. “The spinal cord stimulator acts as a stop signal,” for the pain, he said. Spinal cord stimulation can be used when other pain management therapies don’t help, Dr. Shah said, and it works for a variety of other painful conditions.

“Now I can walk again,” Chatterjee says. “I can wear flip-flops and not worry about swelling and excruciating pain. I can sleep, and I’m able to play a full 18 holes of golf.”