"I just cried with relief. It was so unbelievable, the pain was gone. After 20 years, the pain was gone," Kevin said. "Dr. Brown even started crying, he was so happy for me. That's how much he cared."

Dr. Brown gets great satisfaction seeing his patients overcome years of pain. "Kevin's story is a great one, but it's just one story in a long line of patients who've been helped by this procedure," Dr. Brown said.

Today, Kevin still has little sensation on the right side of his body and minor eye tremors, but the once-nightmarish pain is gone.

Understandably, he credits Dr. Brown and the staff at Harper University Hospital's Department of Neurosurgery for his recovery. He also credits his high school athletics coaches, who taught him that "quitters never win."

"If I'd been a quitter, I never would have found Dr. Brown. He gave me my life back," Kevin said. "I'm very, very lucky I found him."

As much as he appreciates Dr. Brown and the neurosurgery staff at Harper, he says the real heroes in this story are his wife and daughter, who stood by him through two decades of pain.

"It's been hard on my family. The pain. Me not able to work all this time. It's taken a financial toll," Kevin said. "But they've always been there for me. And now, they are very, very happy."