Gateway Midwest Healthcare treats Wildwood patients for vertebral compression fractures, falls, shoulder injuries and tailbone pain, many from ladders, equipment and horses. The office is about thirty-five minutes away, so assessment, imaging review and procedure scheduling happen in one trip.
Wildwood is semi-rural in parts, and we see a fair share of injuries that have nothing to do with traffic.
Why patients come to us from Wildwood
Larger properties mean equipment: mowers, tractors, ladders, chainsaws, horses. The injuries that come from them are different from road injuries — more falls from height, more crush and shear mechanisms, more single-limb trauma with a clear moment of onset.
Falls in particular are worth taking seriously past middle age. A fall that seems minor can produce a vertebral compression fracture where bone density is already reduced, and that is a diagnosis people are frequently sent home without.
The roads around Wildwood, and what they send us
Wildwood sits at the western edge, reached by Highway 100 and Highway 109, with long rural approaches rather than a dense grid.
Those corridors carry a steady volume of commuter traffic, and the pattern we see reflects it: joint strain from impacts at low speed, and disc-pattern pain from hours held in one position.
Highway 109 and Highway 100 carry the traffic, both two-lane for long stretches with limited lighting. Rural-road collisions tend to be higher-energy than suburban ones.
What we treat most for Wildwood patients
Vertebral compression fracture
A collapsed vertebra, often from an injury too minor to seem like a cause.
Slip and fall
Falls on uneven ground, from ladders, and from height.
Shoulder injury
From an outstretched hand on landing.
Coccydynia
Tailbone injury from landing seated.
Why is a compression fracture missed after a fall?
A vertebral compression fracture is the diagnosis most often missed after a fall in an older adult. The mechanism is frequently trivial — a stumble, a heavy bag, occasionally a cough — because the bone was already weakened, and the plain X-ray taken on the day can look unremarkable.
What points to it is the pattern: sudden severe back pain with a clear moment of onset, much worse standing and walking, better lying flat, and tender over one specific spinal level. That combination deserves reassessment even after a normal X-ray.
It also deserves a bone density assessment afterwards, because the fracture that has already happened matters less than the next one. Roughly speaking, the best predictor of a compression fracture is having had one.
Planning the trip from Wildwood
For Wildwood patients the work most often centers on vertebral compression fracture, slip and fall, shoulder injury and coccydynia. Each of those has its own page setting out how it is diagnosed here and what treatment actually involves, and reading the relevant one before the appointment tends to make the visit more productive.
About thirty-five minutes by I-64 and I-270 each way makes scheduling part of the treatment plan. Where imaging or records can be gathered before you travel, that is time recovered.
Useful to have: previous imaging, a current medication list including anything from another prescriber, and a record of what has been tried and what it did. Duration of relief matters more than whether it worked.
Thirty-five minutes each way, so visits are planned to accomplish as much as possible per trip — assessment, imaging review and procedure scheduling together.
We also see patients from Ellisville, Ballwin and Pacific. The full list is on areas we serve.
To book, call or text us. Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. We are at 12174 Natural Bridge Rd, Suite 110, St. Louis, MO 63044 — about 35 minutes from Wildwood, St. Louis County. No referral is needed to book and no attorney is needed to be treated after an accident.
How do you know if a fall caused a compression fracture?
A vertebral compression fracture often arrives without a dramatic event. In bone weakened by osteoporosis it can follow a minor fall, a lift, or occasionally nothing identifiable at all.
The presentation is usually sudden, well-localized back pain that is markedly worse on standing and walking and eased by lying flat, sometimes with a measurable loss of height or an increasing forward curve. It is frequently attributed to a muscular strain initially.
It matters because these fractures are treatable, and because one fracture substantially raises the risk of another. Identifying it prompts both treatment of the fracture and assessment of the underlying bone density, which is the part most often left undone.
Questions we get from Wildwood
I fell and the X-ray was normal. Could something still be broken?
Early compression fractures are not always obvious on a plain X-ray, particularly where bone density is low. Persistent focal pain after a fall is worth reassessing.
Slip & Fall Injuries explains what that looks like.
When is back pain after a fall an emergency?
Loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness in the saddle area, or progressive leg weakness. Those need an emergency department the same day.
This is set out in Vertebral Compression Fracture.
Do you treat injuries that happened at home?
Yes. Home and property injuries are a large share of what we see from Wildwood.
Slip & Fall Injuries goes through it in detail.
Can a fracture happen without a fall?
Yes. In osteoporotic bone a lift or a minor jolt can be enough, and sometimes no event is identified.
This is set out in Vertebral Compression Fracture.
Does it heal on its own?
Many do over weeks. Where pain is severe or function is lost, treatment options exist and are worth discussing early.
How painful is a compression fracture?
It usually starts as sudden, severe back pain with a clear moment of onset. The pain is much worse when you stand or walk, eases when you lie flat, and sits over one specific level of the spine that is tender to press. Some people also lose height or develop a forward curve. Because it is so often put down to a pulled muscle at first, that pattern deserves a second look.
What will a doctor do for a compression fracture?
We start with the pattern of your pain and the tender spinal level, then review your imaging, because a plain X-ray taken on the day can look normal. Once the fracture is identified, we treat it and assess your bone density, the step most often left undone, since one fracture raises the risk of the next. For Wildwood patients we plan assessment, imaging review and procedure scheduling into one trip.
Do you need a referral to go to pain management?
No. You can book with Gateway Midwest Healthcare directly by calling or texting, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and after an accident you do not need an attorney to be treated. Bring previous imaging, a current medication list including anything from another prescriber, and a record of what you have tried and how long each treatment helped.
12174 Natural Bridge Rd, Suite 110
St. Louis, MO 63044
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Hurt in an accident? Start here.
You do not need a lawyer, a police report or a referral to be seen. Bring your symptoms and we will work out the rest.
Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Same-day appointments are often available for new accident and injury patients.