Talia Ryan was 15 when she began experiencing excruciating back pain. Five years later, the young Foothill Ranch woman lasted barely one day as a student at UC Irvine in the fall of 2016 because the pain had become so debilitating.
When she met with Dr. Nitin Bhatia, co-director of the UCI Health Comprehensive Spine Program and chair of the UCI School of Medicine's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, she felt an immediate rapport because he listened to her and understood her concerns.
