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May 31, 2007 7:10 pm US/Central
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Man With Brain Aneurysm Saved With Risky Surgery
by Dennis Douda
(WCCO)
An Eden Prairie, Minn. man is lucky to be alive after suffering a rare brain aneurysm. It was the quick thinking and willingness to try something new by doctors at HealthEast that gave Dan Jensen a new lease on life.
Jensen, 40, was jogging on a path near his home last fall, when something went terribly wrong.
"All of the sudden I found myself on the grass on the left side of the path," said Jensen.
He didn't know it at the time but he had suffered a severe brain aneurysm.
"I was sitting here and all of the sudden everything started to spin and I felt this weight on my chest," he said.
The father of three was rushed to a hospital where at first he was diagnosed with an ear infection but two days later his symptoms got worse and he was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital.
Dr. Eric Nussbaum, the Chair of HealthEast's Neurovascular Institute, was called in to check Jensen out. The doctor said in Jensen's case it was literally a matter of life or death.
"There was pressure on his brain stem, and that he was herinating, which essentially means that the bottom portion of the brain is actually coming down and being forced through the base of the skull," said Nussbaum.
Tests showed heavy bleeding due to tears in three arteries in Jensen's brain. Nussbaum decided to perform a very risky, complicated surgery where he used gauze to wrap the broken vessels. Gauze has been used in the past but for Jensen's surgery, Nussbaum only wrapped the injured tissue, a delicate task that avoids possible risk to other arteries.
"So all we did was basically reinforce the artery to prevent it from bleeding again, in the short run and then Dan himself, his body did the work by healing the artery," said Nussbaum.
"It literally saved my life," said Jensen.
Nussbaum is only one of a handful of doctors who are performing this kind of surgery in the country.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)