SUN CITY, Ariz. (March 28, 2025) -- A Tucson woman is celebrating getting her life back, thanks to highly specialized and compassionate care at Banner Boswell Medical Center. Linda Hill had all but given up, until Brett Broussard, MD, understood her symptoms and diagnosed her with a rare disease called thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS).
In early 2021, Linda started noticing pain in her right shoulder, swelling and pain in both wrists, and felt her pinky finger and ring fingers curling. The constant pain continued to get worse.
“I had to stop working, and then I had to apply for disability funding,” Hill recalled. “My world got very, very small, very quickly.”
With a career as an education consultant, Hill was determined to do her research and find out the cause of her pain. She said she saw 17 doctors, and when none were able to figure out what exactly was wrong, Hill started to assume that living with this new pain might become her new reality.
“I had been spoken down to so many times and hit so many walls,” Hill said. “I was through with being let down.”
Then she found Dr. Broussard at Banner Boswell in Sun City, who received specialized training and is an expert in TOS. She had her first appointment with Dr. Broussard in August 2023.
“For once, my symptoms were not belittled,” Hill said. “Dr. Broussard gave me honesty, compassion, and was willing to look at my symptom history. He has the knowledge to know what to look for – and knew I had TOS.”
TOS is a group of conditions that places pressure on blood vessels or nerves in the area between the neck and shoulder and is a rare disease that can be vascular or, more commonly, neurogenic in nature. Because of the intricacy of the disease, an extensive medical history intake and physical exam, along with specialized imaging are usually required to accurately diagnosis TOS. Surgery can be considered for the treatment of TOS, but Dr. Broussard says that physical therapy and other non-surgical options, including scalene muscle Botox injections, are tried first.
“This process is helpful in the diagnosis and can also be therapeutic,” said Dr. Broussard.
In Hill’s case, she had TOS on both sides of her body, which is even more rare. She drove more than 260 miles round trip to Sun City from Tucson at least four times for surgical treatment on her right and left side of the body. The procedures were successful, and Hill has since regained function in both hands.
She is a competitive swimmer, loves to kayak, and spends her days with her wife and kids. Since treatment, her quality of life has returned.
“My kids told me that ‘I’ve got my silly back’,” Hill said. “And they’re right. I finally am starting to feel like myself again and I’m just so grateful.”
Dr. Broussard added, “Patients who might be suffering from TOS can be seen by many different doctors, when it’s unclear what the problem is – like Linda. I want people to be aware of TOS and how Banner Boswell can help.”
Banner Boswell Medical Center in Sun City, Ariz., specializes in heart care, cancer care, orthopedic surgery, physical rehabilitation, stroke care, skilled nursing and emergency care. Banner Boswell is part of Banner Health, a nonprofit health care system with 33 hospitals in six states. Supporting Banner Boswell’s mission of excellent patient care is Sun Health Foundation, which encourages charitable giving to enhance health care delivery. For more information, visit bannerhealth.com/boswell.
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