Medical Marvels: Man battles VHL disease

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Manuel Greco has Von Hippel-Lindau disease. It's a rare condition that causes tumors to grow in certain parts of the body. Most of the tumors are benign but they often grow back after being removed. Manuel has been battling VHL disease since he was 17 years old, enduring more than a dozen surgeries along the way, many of them on his brain.

Now in his forties, Manuel credits a positive attitude, progress in treatments and of course the talented staff at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center for treating him through his entire medical journey. Now he's trying to help others with the disease. He's become an active fundraiser to find a cure for VHL.

You can find out much more about VHL disease here: http://www.vhl.org/wordpress/library/VHL-2-page.pdf

New York-Presbyterian Hospital is the primary venue for the ABC series NY Med, which airs Thursday night at 10 p.m. on Channel 7.

The hospital is one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive hospitals, with some 2,600 beds. In 2013, there were more than 2 million inpatient and outpatient visits to the hospital, including close to 15,000 deliveries and more than 310,000 emergency department visits. More than 6,500 affiliated physicians and 20,000 employees provide state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory, and preventive care in all areas of medicine at six campuses.

To learn more, please visit nyp.org and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.

Read more about Dr. Michael B. Sisti, Neurosurgeon, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center