Treatment for life-threatening brain aneurysm has patient back on her feet in no time

Neurosurgeons at Altair Health treated Maureen Myers’ aneurysm with a minimally invasive technique known as coiling.

Maureen Myers went back to work in the Food Services Department at Manasquan High School just four weeks after surgery.

After the summer, Myers of Point Pleasant couldn’t wait to get back to making lunches and manning the cash register as a member of the Food Services Department at Manasquan High School. She’s been working there for 17 years and adores her job.

Her excitement for starting the new school year was dampened over Labor Day weekend. Myers wasn’t feeling well and soon found herself in Brick Hospital’s emergency room with multiple heart exams being done. All tests were negative — and she was released with the diagnosis of an ulcer. A few days later, she still didn’t feel right … plus now she had a terrible headache.

Myers went back to the hospital where a CT scan of her head revealed a large brain aneurysm. Immediately, she was transported by ambulance to Jersey Shore Medical Center knowing the aneurysm could rupture at any moment. Within a few hours, neurosurgeons at Altair Health were operating on her.

Maureen had a large aneurysm located just behind the left eye. An aneurysm is a ballooning of a blood vessel, similar to a bubble on a tire. When an aneurysm this large causes a severe sudden headache, as it did in Maureen’s case, you worry that it has ruptured or is about to rupture. It is essential to get that aneurysm treated right away before bleeding occurs. Traditionally, the treatment was open surgery where we remove the skull and close off the aneurysm with a metal clip. Thankfully, today we have another, minimally invasive, option called coiling.

Luckily, her aneurysm could be treated with coiling. Altair neurosurgeons were able to take a catheter from an artery in her leg up to her brain. He was able to place this very small catheter inside the aneurysm and packed it with coils to block it from the inside.

Myers and her family were amazed. There was no head shaving. No need for long-term medication. No visible scars. It was as if nothing had happened.

“It took a few weeks to recover completely, and when I returned to work, my colleagues couldn’t believe anything had been wrong with me — let alone the fact that I had been through five hours of surgery,” Myers said. “I feel great, and I owe that to Altair Health; and the Jersey Shore team. They were all reassuring, kind, compassionate and patient.”