About us
Our vision:
To make sure that people diagnosed with scoliosis can lead a full and happy life.
Our mission:
Vertebra Foundation is committed to helping children and adults with scoliosis and uniting the professionals working in favour of them. Our work consists of two main components: one of them is education or in other words giving authentic information about the conservative and surgical treatments of scoliosis and other diseases of spinal column, and the other one is creating and keeping together a community of those affected by scoliosis, while providing them psychological support.
Introduction
Vertebra Foundation was founded in 1990 by prof. Dr. Dezső Jeszenszky, spine surgeon and head of Spine Surgery, Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery at the Schultess Klinik in Zurich. Prof. Dr. Jeszenszky is considered worldwide to be an exceptional talent and a leading expert in this field, however his singularity is evident in one more area: even though he’s been living and working abroad, he’s been a huge help for Hungarian spinal patients and had great impact on the development of spinal surgery in Hungary.
The foundation performs complete national coverage and helps spinal patients, their families and the professionals working in favour of them with numerous initiatives and programmes. The Chief Operational Officer, Barbara Schuster is also affected: her severe spinal deformity was surgically treated at the age of 25 (prof. Dr. Dezső Jeszenszky, St. Gallen, Switzerland). Her successful operation and her doctor’s exceptional patient-oriented attitude led her to become one of the voluntary workers of her peer community from 2005 and to become an official employee for Vertebra Foundation from 2006.
We hope that our work is credible, convincing and creates value. Those of us who work for this case – whether as volunteers or professionals – do so with the same passion as when we committed to it here, years, decades ago. We believe that we’re responsible for that crucial part that we were assigned to. In everyday life, the love, gratitude and positive feedback from patients and families gives us strength and motivation to keep going.
The founder of Vertebra Foundation, members of the Board of Trustees:
The President of The Board of Trustees:
Zsófia Horváth-Németh
Tamás Németh
President 1990-2022
Other members of the Board of Trustees:
Csaba István Joó
mental health specialist
executive director (Salus Orthopedtechnika LLC)
Dr. Dóra Bárdos
jurist, EU consultant
spinal surgery patient
Chief Operational Officer of Vertebra Foundation:
Barbara Schuster
psychopedagogist
spinal surgery patient
“I underwent corrective surgery for a severe scoliosis resulting from a congenital spinal deformity when I was an adult.Experiencing both my recovery and the exceptional attitude of my doctor – prof. Dr. Dezső Jeszenszky, spine surgeon – I decided to become a helper of my fellow sufferers. I’ve been working for Vertebra since 2006: the last fifteen years were about building a community and a case, with lots of success and happiness. As an affected patient, psychopedagogist and a character of the scoliosis case I’ve found my place here and I feel responsible for it now.One of the most important milestones of my journey, among many others, is the publication of my autobiographical book ’Behind My Back’ in 2020 (www.scolirodalom.hu, Libri, Bookline), and changes in the screening and treatments of children born with vertebral malformation (www.babacsigolya.hu)."
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