FRIDLEY, Minn. – An Atlanta woman was already grateful for the surgically implanted pain management device she received earlier this year.
Then she found out her mother had assembled it.
“I lost it, I cried, I screamed,” Sonia Colon said. “I just kept saying, ‘Oh my God mom, oh my God.’”
Sonia had lived for years with debilitating pain associated with an ankle she shattered while serving in the army.
“I wanted them to amputate my foot, that's how bad it had gotten,” she said.
In May, a surgeon implanted a neurostimulator in Sonia’s lower back to intercept pain signals traveling between her ankle and her brain.
The medical device was manufactured by Medtronic at a plant in Puerto Rico – where Sonia’s mom, Sulma Colon, works.
After surgery, Sonia tracked her device’s serial number, only to learn the device had been assembled by her mother.
“This machine is perfect, now I definitely know it was made with love,” Sonia said.
On Friday, Sonia and her mother spoke at Medtronic’s annual employee holiday program.
Sonia’s doctor, Amit Patel of Georgia Pain and Wellness Center, also made the trip to the Twin Cities.
“It’s really changed her life,” Patel said of the Medtronic device.
Sulma Colon spent years wishing she could do something to help her daughter with her pain. Now she has.
“It was meant to be,” Sulma said.