An avid surfer, Kaitlin regained mobility after rare spinal cyst surgery at Scripps, returning to an active, pain-free life.

Kaitlin Callanan describes herself as someone who’s “constantly moving.” A quintessential San Diegan, she loves surfing, beach volleyball, tennis, dancing and trail running — to name just a few of her hobbies. “I’m someone who feels like I’m myself — my best self — when I’m active,” she says. 

While living in Costa Rica four years ago, she started feeling weakness in her right ankle. Like many young, active people, her first reaction was to ignore it. At first, it was subtle, but I was losing balance on my surfboard and I had hesitation with my footing, which I’d never had before,” she says. “I thought, I’m an athlete. I’ve rolled my ankle multiple times before. It’ll heal with time.” 

But the weakness lingered. As time passed, she wasn’t just a little unsteady on her surfboard; she was rolling her ankle “consistently” and struggling any time she needed to push off on her foot. Months later, she was forced to stop playing sports and felt unstable just walking down the street. Even stepping on something as small as a pebble could cause a fall. 

Clearly, she needed help. She consulted multiple physicians, specialists and physical therapists, but found no answers. “Test after test after test returned inconclusive. None of the solutions that I was pursuing were actually working. Meanwhile, my symptoms were getting worse,” she recalls. 

Two years after her ankle instability first began, Kaitlin developed foot drop, a condition that left her unable to lift her foot due to weakness in the ankle and toes. It became hard to walk upstairs or even on flat surfaces. She had daily back pain and shooting nerve pain running down her leg. 

“It was affecting all aspects of my life — how I saw myself, how I spent my time,” she says. “It felt like everything was slipping away from me. I started to wonder — and worry — if this was my new normal.” 

In January 2025, Kaitlin went to the emergency department at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla for an unrelated condition. Attentive doctors ordered a CT scan and MRI, which revealed what was causing the pain and weakness in her leg: Kaitlin had a large cyst growing in her spinal canal. “That’s when everything changed,” she says. 

Stephen Stephan, MD, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Scripps Clinic Torrey Pines, was on-call that night at Scripps La Jolla and referred Kaitlin to Hani Malone, MD, a neurosurgeon specializing in spine conditions at Scripps Clinic. Dr. Malone recalls the first time he met Kaitlin. 

“When Kaitlin came in, she could barely walk,” he says. “She had foot drop. She had significant weakness in her legs. This was a pretty dire situation.” 

Kaitlin had an arachnoid cyst, meaning it wasn’t cancerous or malignant. It was, however, compressing her spinal cord, causing her chronic pain and leaving her unable to activate muscles. 

Spinal cysts are rare and Kaitlin’s was located at her thoracolumbar junction — the mid-back region where the thoracic spine meets the lumbar spine — making it even more atypical. 

“Neurologic tissue doesn’t like being under pressure,” Dr. Malone explains. “When there’s pressure on the spinal cord, it doesn’t function.” 

Dr. Malone immediately formulated a plan and considered Kaitlin’s lifestyle and passions. The goal was to keep her safe, healthy and active — and ensure the cyst wouldn’t return. 

Doing her due diligence, Kaitlin sought a second opinion and consulted with multiple neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. She felt assured Dr. Malone was the right physician to perform the procedure.  

One of the most important things for Kaitlin was to avoid any screws, rods or other hardware, which she worried would limit her mobility long-term and prevent her from doing the activities she loves. The approach that Dr. Malone recommended did not involve hardware of any kind. 

Dr. Malone says that was an obvious choice when he looked at her case. “She was a young, healthy, athletic woman. She didn’t need screws. She just needed her spinal cord decompressed,” he says. “Like most spine surgeons, I do use hardware sometimes. But at Scripps, we don’t do it reflexively. We only do it when necessary.” 

Dr. Malone works closely with the Scripps Clinic spine surgeons in orthopedics as well as a colleague in neurosurgery to discuss patient cases and develop an interdisciplinary approach to treatment. 

“Because we’re not in an echo chamber, we can really look at the patient, follow the evidence and ask, ‘Is there another way that I could do this?’ We’re there to find the best solution to the problem and help each other — and our patients — succeed,” he says. 

Dr. Malone and his planning process made a strong impression on Kaitlin. “Dr. Malone is truly exceptional. His care, empathy and genuine dedication to improve my quality of life were evident in every interaction,” she says.  

“When creating my surgical plan, he took the time to understand me as a whole person — my lifestyle, my priorities, even my passion for surfing – so his surgical plan was tailored to me and the life I want to live.” 

Kaitlin underwent surgery on Feb. 21, 2025. With the cyst removed, she immediately started to feel better. But a few days later, weakness and tingling nerve sensations began to return. A hematoma had formed in place of the cyst. This can happen when patients are taking blood thinners and are unable to move around, as Kaitlin was, particularly because the cyst that was removed was so large. 

Both Kaitlin’s family and the team at Scripps Green Hospital noticed the changes immediately, and Dr. Malone acted quickly, removing the hematoma and getting Kaitlin back on the road to recovery. 

“When I’d spoken with surgeons about removing the cyst, I wasn’t thinking about making sure I went with someone who could handle complications,” she says. “But one of the biggest reasons I have gratitude for my decision to choose Dr. Malone and his team was how they were able to handle those post-surgery complications.” 

Kaitlin’s road to recovery was not smooth. She had to relearn to walk. Plus, there was a lot of emotional healing to do. 

“Being in that much pain is extraordinarily challenging,” she says. 

Kaitlin credits the entire team at Scripps with helping her through that time. She said it was clear that other members of her care team — nursing staff, physical therapists and others — had a passion for health care that showed in the way they cared for her. 

Dr. Malone was “incredibly present,” she says, not only during her hospital stay, but throughout the months of healing that followed. 

“I never had the experience of not being able to get a hold of my doctor,” she says. “I know it’s stereotypical to say, ‘They treated me like family,’ but that’s what it was,” she adds. “There was so much tenderness and care I received from the entire team. I was really in awe.” 

Kaitlin also credits Luna and Daisy — members of Scripps’ Therapy Dog Program who visited her during her stay — as extended “caregivers.” She appreciated the comfort they brought so much that she now wants to get her own dog and train it to become a Scripps therapy dog. 

“I just received the highest caliber of care in all of the ways — not only medically but being fully seen, treated and appreciated as a human being,” she says. “At the time, I remember being so fearful of what could happen to my body. But I was never fearful of the hands that I was in. I always trusted my team.” 

It was seven months before Kaitlin was able to get back in the water again, but she got there — and she remembers holding hands with her friends and crying when it happened. 

Kaitlin spent the one-year anniversary of that first cyst-removal surgery as far from a hospital as she could get: She was on a surfing trip, back to moving her body, back to feeling like her best self.  

Today, she’s in the gym lifting weights, outside playing tennis and pickleball and doing all of the activities she once worried she’d never be able to enjoy again. And she can do them all without pain or fear. 

“Things could have turned out very differently. My story could have easily been one of just being thankful to be here — to be able to walk,” Kaitlin says. “But because of Dr. Malone and Scripps, that’s not my story. What I went through was rare, complex and incredibly difficult, and today I’m back to where I was before it all happened — healthy, active and living life to the fullest. I couldn’t be more grateful.”