(BUFFALO & NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK) – Through the compassion and mission of Dr. Franco Vigna, his reVive Spine Centers in Buffalo and Niagara Falls are helping Western New York’s Union Members, Working People and Veterans alike who are experiencing either discomfort or pain, but are now benefitting from an array of services he and his staff offers. 

For example, both Niagara-Orleans AFL-CIO Central Labor Council President Jim Briggs and United Way of Greater Niagara Labor Liaison Bill Jakobi recently told WNYLaborToday.com not only how Dr. Vigna and the reVive’s Spine Center’s services have personally helped them both, but specifically why they chose to seek them out.

“I started seeing Dr. Vigna (pictured below) for my lower back pain that was ‘shooting down into my legs and causing numbness,’” Briggs tells WNYLaborToday.com.  “(Dr. Vigna) ‘was very cautious in the ways to alleviate my pain without doing surgery.’  He prescribed water and physical therapy in a pool where I did a lot of stretching ‘without my feet touching bottom.’  ‘It helped,’ but then I had to have a surgical procedure in regards to my back and ‘now I feel (95) % better.’  ‘I’m close to pain free.’  ‘And yes, I would recommend him based on my surgery success.’”

Jakobi went to reVive after his back began to bother him: “They helped me set up physical therapy (schedule) over a six-week period ‘and now I feel good.’  They ‘made sure there was no real damage because they didn’t want to recommend surgery if there wasn’t.’  They showed me where there was ‘some space between’ one of my vertebras and disks.  The therapy ‘helped me and I’m happy’ with the services (reVive) provided.  ‘I would definitely recommend them.’”

However, both Briggs and Jakobi say they would have never known about the reVive Spine Center and Dr. Vigna had it not been for reVive becoming a Front Page Banner Advertiser on WNYLaborToday.com.  And Briggs went even further, making it a point to say that reVive’s “commitment to the local Labor Movement in supporting WNYLaborToday.com, which allows Unions to get their message out” was a reason why he sought out the services offered by reVive.

“(reVive) ‘supports’ a Labor News outlet ‘that we need as a Labor Movement to get our word out’ and that’s why I ‘allowed one of their representatives to address a meeting of the Niagara-Orleans Labor Council.’  ‘It’s a way’ for Labor to also ‘give back’ to those in the community ‘who support us and I hope that both reVive and the Labor Movement and its Members continue to do that,’” Briggs said.

Dr. Vigna came to Western New York in the early 2000s after serving as Director of Spinal Surgery at Tulane University in New Orleans, which was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina.  He decided to stay, working with another spinal health service provider in Lockport before deciding to go out on his own and then opening his first office, in Niagara Falls, in 2017.

“I ‘liked’ Buffalo.  It was a ‘great place to live.’  I ‘liked the lifestyle here’ - it had a ‘Midwestern-like feel to it,’” he told WNYLaborToday.com.  “Niagara Falls ‘has been so good to us that I wanted to give back and support’ our patients, including our Veterans and those in Law Enforcement.  I have had ‘so many’ patients in the Police, Fire and FBI (U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation) ranks who’ve come to us ‘and couldn’t even do a push up.’  ‘Now, they are all back to full duty.’  What I do is ‘restore people’s ability to function in their everyday lives.’  We deal - (100%) - with back and neck problems – disk herniates, arm and leg pain, spinal instability (“Where one slips abruptly over the next”), spinal curvature, clogging of the spinal canal, degenerative disk disease and sciatica.  I see (60) new patients a month, myself.  ‘Every new patient, I see.’  You ‘have to determine what the injury is, how and what is injured (before assessing) the level of care.’”

Dr. Vigna and reVive see patients from across the board, from 18 years old through the Work Population – 30 to 60 years of age – to patients as old as 90. 

And when it comes to evaluating and helping Union-represented Workers, it runs the gambit from Construction Workers - including Unionized Ironworkers, Painters and Plumbers - Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Truck Drivers, Linesmen and Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)-represented Public Workers employed as Sanitation Workers and Snowplow Drivers.

“Union Workers ‘impress’ me with their ‘work ethic,’” Dr. Vigna tells WNYLaborToday.com. “And their ‘commitment’ to their fellow Workers - their ‘Union Brothers and Sisters.’”

While the reVive Spine Center works with several Western New York Labor Law Firms, getting referrals from those firms who represent Workers who are hurt on the job, Dr. Vigna also benefits from “word of mouth” referrals, which he finds very rewarding.

“It’s usually ‘word of mouth’ with one Worker telling another (about reVive’s services).  I see a patient, ‘get them better and then they go back to work and tell’ a fellow Employees.  ‘That’s how so many Workers get referred to me,’” Dr. Vigna said.

About 50% of his overall patient load are Union-represented Workers, he says, “but I want it to be more.”  “I ‘like to work with people like that and my goal is to get them back to their jobs or well enough to be retrained to do another job,’” he said.

At last count, the two reVive Spine Centers had a combined staff of 12, including a Physician, two Physician Assistants, two Medical Assistants, an X-Ray Technician, as well as Office Staff. 

Recently, two additional specialties were added to the practice - Physical Medical & Rehabilitation with Pain Management and Pain Management Psychology - and the reVive Spine Center is said to be the only independent practice offering Spinal Surgery, housing these two specialties under one roof to care for injured Workers. 

But with the local radio airwaves currently being bombarded by news of what spinal decompression can do for someone with back pain or back problems, Dr. Vigna wants those across Western New York’s Labor Movement to know what the reVive Spine Center offers can help their them alleviate those problems at a very high percentage, where they get to the point that they do not have to consider other options, including back or spinal surgery.

“It ‘truly is amazing,’” Dr. Vigna tells Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.  “We’ve ‘gotten them better, off pain medication and back to a normal lifestyle.’  ‘It has been incredible.’”

reVive offers its patients Integrity Spinal Decompression - “A newer version of the (DRX 9000 Spinal Decompression Machine).  There are ‘only two here in all’ of New York State ‘and I am the only physician in New York State (that has one to offer his patients),’” Dr. Vigna said.

The process targets each individual spinal disk so therapy can be prescribed at the “right level.”  In fact, a disk herniation can be solved by “filling (the impacted) area back up with fluid,” he said.  Individual treatments take about 27 minutes.  An anti-inflammatory is administered before treatment and a brace is used after it ends. 

There are three treatment schedules: Five days per week for two weeks; Three days a week for two weeks; and Two days a week for two weeks.  “We have ‘so many tools in our toolbox and we have to decide which is the right tool to use at the right time.’  That’s why ‘we have to make sure we have the right treatment protocol.’  In the end, we have an (80%) success rate,” he said.

Dr. Vigna’s commitment to Union-represented Workers and Working People alike goes far beyond diagnosing and prescribing treatment to make them better. 

Several years back he made a personal decision to close up shop, board a plane for New York City and meet with New York State Workers Comp Representatives to make a case for his patients who were hurt on the job.  Rules and regulations concerning Workers Comp were being created with the in-put of insurance company executives, attorneys and physicians "that did not operate” on those who were injured, he said.

“That made ‘no sense to me for people who did not operate for a living.’  So I took a day off, flew to New York and met with its executive director.  I presented my case regarding my patients who were hurt at work and denied treatment under the present regulations.  I brought x-rays and MRIs - before and afters - ‘how they returned to work under operations that were no longer allowed.’  ‘And I got them to accept (procedures) that were no longer allowed.’  Six months later, (the guidelines) were changed,” Dr. Vigna said.

On another front, Dr. Vigna and the reVive Spine Center have also dedicated themselves to helping an array of Military Vets who also have a variety of back and spinal problems.

“A lot of the Union guys are Vets too,” said Dr. Vigna, who recently volunteered his time and resources to do a pro-bono surgery for a local Veteran who’d been in pain for the past 18 years. In fact, to honor them - we put up a seventy-foot flag pole to fly each service flag and a garden with a bench (at the Niagara Falls Spinal Center).”

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: For More On The reVive Spine Center, visit their web site at http://revivespinecenter.com/ and their Social Network Facebook Page at   www.facebook.com/reViveSpineCenter/.

Photos that appear with WNYLaborToday.com’s Labor News Report on the reVive Spine Center are courtesy of the reVive Spine Center’s Director of Marketing & Business Development, Yves-Richard Blanc.