When No One Else Could See It, They Did: Danielle’s Story of Being Heard, Helped, and Given Her Life Back
05.20.2026
For Danielle Canter, the hardest part was not just the pain.
It was the feeling that something was deeply wrong in her body, while no one seemed to truly hear her.
In early 2025, Danielle’s symptoms became impossible to ignore. At night, when she laid down, she felt like her head was falling off her neck. Sleep became nearly impossible. As time went on, her symptoms worsened. She began losing function in her arms and legs. A cold tingling sensation traveled down her body. Walking became difficult. Everyday life started slipping away.
By spring, things had progressed so severely that Danielle had largely stopped going out.
“I literally felt like my head was disconnecting from my neck,” she said. “I knew something was wrong.” At the time, she had already seen another physician and had even been scheduled for surgery. But despite long appointments and repeated explanations of what she was feeling, she left those visits defeated and uncertain. The surgical plan she had been given did not match what she was experiencing, and deep down, she knew it.
That is when she decided to seek a second opinion.
After searching online for a neurosurgery practice, Danielle discovered the SpineFirst team, a collaborative partnership between Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates and Atrium Health, where she felt confident she was in the right place for advanced spine care. That decision changed everything.
Her first appointment at CNSA was with Lauren Waldron, PA-C. Danielle came in carrying not just imaging and test results, but also frustration, fear, and the exhaustion of not being believed. She explained that although surgery was already scheduled elsewhere, she felt certain something more was going on. Lauren listened. She reviewed Danielle’s history, looked at what had already been done, and recommended one important next step that no one else had done before: a flexion-extension X-ray. That imaging revealed what Danielle had been trying to explain all along.
“When she looked at me and said, ‘I agree with you. There’s something going on here,’ it was like the weight of the world lifted,” Danielle said. “I walked out of there feeling validated for the first time. I felt like someone finally saw what I had been saying.”
Lauren referred Danielle to neurosurgeon Dr. Paul K. Kim, MD.
From the moment he reviewed her imaging, Danielle and her husband knew they were in the right place. “He was so thorough, so detailed, and so confident in what needed to be done,” Danielle said. “It was completely different from what the other doctor had planned. And we knew, walking out of his office that day, that Dr. Kim had the right plan.”
Danielle had undergone a prior cervical fusion years earlier, but that surgery had failed. Screws had backed out, and the instability in her neck had worsened. While another surgeon had focused only on one portion of the problem, Dr. Kim recognized that the issue was more extensive. He saw what others had missed and created a surgical plan that addressed the true source of her symptoms.
If Danielle had moved forward with the original surgery, the real problem would not have been fixed. That reality still takes her breath away.
Before seeing CNSA, her condition had become so severe that even routine movement could trigger frightening episodes. One day, after lying down on the couch, she woke up and felt a burning sensation move from her neck through the rest of her body. She began losing sensation and struggled to speak. Her mother feared she was having a stroke. An ambulance took her to the emergency room, where she was told nothing was wrong and sent home.
But something was wrong.
Later, after reviewing the right imaging, Lauren and Dr. Kim were able to connect Danielle’s symptoms to what was truly happening in her cervical spine.
Without that answer, Danielle says she does not know where she would be today.
“I was so depressed,” she said. “I truly started to think maybe I was the problem. Maybe I was going crazy. That’s what happens when you know something is wrong, but people keep telling you they don’t see it.” The emotional toll was enormous. She stopped driving. She stopped going out. She could not function normally day to day. Even family members, unsure of what was happening, worried that the issue might be psychological. Only her husband, who had witnessed it all firsthand, knew just how real it was. Then came the turning point.
Being heard by Lauren. Being believed. Being diagnosed correctly. Being given a real plan by Dr. Kim. As her symptoms worsened, sleep had become nearly impossible. In search of relief, Danielle and her husband created a simple support insert to help stabilize her head at night. When Lauren and Dr. Kim confirmed what was truly happening, everything clicked. Danielle realized she had not been imagining any of it, and that what she had created might help others facing the same struggle.
What began as a personal solution eventually evolved into a patented sleep support innovation designed to help others find comfort and stability.
“I manufactured it because of them,” Danielle said. “Seeing Lauren and Dr. Kim empowered me. They made me realize I was right. I wasn’t crazy. And if other people were going through what I went through, maybe this could help them too.”
Today, Danielle shares her story openly and advocates for others who are still searching for answers. Physically, she says she feels like a completely new person.
Her recovery after surgery with Dr. Kim was smoother than she ever expected. She needed very little medication, returned to activity quickly, and now lives with a level of freedom she once thought she had lost. “I can do absolutely anything I want to do,” she said. “I can pick up my grandbabies. I can live my life again. Every day I get better.” Friends and family see it too. “Everyone says I’m like a brand-new woman,” Danielle said.
Looking back, she credits her outcome not only to the surgery itself, but to the skill, care, and responsiveness of the team around her.
“If I had questions, they answered me. If I needed something, they were there. They listened every step of the way,” she said. “I will forever be indebted to Lauren and Dr. Kim. I’ll shout it from the rooftops for the rest of my life.”
For Danielle, her story is about more than recovery. It is about what can happen when the right people listen. It is about the life-changing power of being believed. And it is about finding hope again when you are at your lowest.
“At CNSA, they listened to me,” Danielle said. “And that changed everything.”
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