Stacia’s Story: Standing Tall

They say nobody recovers this fast, but she did.

Well, our son passed away and it was the end of the funeral and we was doing a balloon release and she was speaking, she was saying a few words and as soon as the balloons went in the air, I looked in the air, and I heard somebody say, get her. And she had just passed out.

She wasn't responding to anybody. She looked at me and didn't know who I was. She looked at our son, didn't know who ... Our other son, didn't know who he was. So, they called the ambulance and they transported her to the hospital.

When Miss Dawson arrived, she was immediately evaluated by both the emergency room doctors which felt that she probably needed to have her airway protected because they knew the severity of her injury because the CT scan that shows the blood on the brain is done immediately once she rolls in the door. So with that information, we acted quickly. The emergency room helped put this tube down her throat when she was completely sedated now and calm and comfortable. And we had the neuro critical care unit arrive as well and that team is a specific team of neuro trained doctors that takes care of severe neuro injuries. We do the most of these cases in the city, ah, we have a very, very low complication rate and we have a wonderful neuro critical care team and neuro surgical teams standing by as our partners, all ready and willing to help these vascular patients.

Had never had any problems that I had known with my brain. I have had high blood pressure. It was recently diagnosed maybe four or five months before that, I had high blood pressure but never knew anything about an aneurism or something wrong with my brain.

He actually did come in there, he drew us a picture, told us what had happened, told us what he was gonna do, and he did it. And anybody that had a question, he didn't, no matter how stupid it sounded at the time, he still answered it. He answered everybody's question, to anybody that had a question, he answered it.

I have a 17 year old who just lost his brother and was scared that his mom was dying so he was really in a bad space and they said Dr. Lilway sat one on one and talked to him. That was important to me.

I consider myself very lucky to do what I do. I remember that every single day that I get to take care of patients. I enjoy my job. I think a big part of it is communication. I think it is probably one of the things that I find I spend quite a bit of my time doing and never regret because I know families are worried, they're scared, they don't understand this process and for us who go through it day after day, it becomes routine. But for them, this their loved one. This is somebody that means everything to them. This is a situation they've never faced before and I try not to forget that.

Miss Dawson's procedure lasted a little over two hours, which is our typical aneurismal repair time. In certain cases, it can run much longer, in other cases it's a little shorter. But her situation was, thankfully, more of our run of the mill if you will, as we do this all the time. I was able to navigate through the arteries fairly quickly and place these little coils within the aneurism safely with excellent results. I knew by the end of the procedure, the aneurism was cured and the arteries that we were working in looked good so I did not anticipate she would have any further injury.

He said she was going to be fine. And he was right.

I'm just super appreciative that he fixed me and his staff has been wonderful every time I come in, they're just like, "We are just so amazed how good you are." And, I'm like, you guys did it. Like, I'm just healing, you guys fixed me. Like I said, I just think it's a blessing. I don't know how else to describe it that if people get a chance to get Doctor Lugwig's services is, you can't do any better. I hear repeatedly that most people don't make it after they have a brain bleed.

Actually, we were told, when we were at Good Sam's that she would be coming to see him. And he came very highly recommended then. So, when we got the meeting, they said it before we got here, they said, that's the best you're gonna get. And they were right.

Miss Dawson's prognosis is excellent. We will continue to follow her for years to make sure that both the repair that I did looks good and that nothing else new, or anything else changes that needs attention would pop up.

Doctor Lugwig tells me that it's going to take a year before I know how much I have recovered and how much I will recover but he expects it to be almost perfect by the time the year is up so that's a blessing.