Teen Who Suffered Brain Rupture Returns to School
Alyssa Bray of Nazareth, Pa., had emergency surgery that saved her life
You only get one senior year in high school, and Alyssa Bray, 17, isn’t about to miss hers. She missed most of her junior year at Nazareth Area High School after she suffered a ruptured vein in her brain, underwent life-saving emergency brain surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest and spent months in rehabilitation therapy.
The teen who enjoyed softball and basketball was waiting for a bus to take her home last October when she experienced an excruciating headache. She’d been fine earlier in the day and had even sent a text message to her dad to wish him happy birthday.
Her friends knew something wasn’t right and alerted the school nurse, who called 9-1-1. Bray was diagnosed with a brain condition called arteriovenous malformation or AVM. The malformation of tangled veins had burst open and was causing bleeding and pressure in her brain, a potentially deadly situation.
Darryn Shaff, M.D., a neurointerventional radiologist with Lehigh Valley Health Network and Mark Li, M.D., and Mei Wong, M.D., neurosurgeons with the health network, treated Bray as a team. First, they worked to stop the bleeding and stabilize the pressure inside her cranium (the part of the skull that houses and protects the brain). Then, Li surgically clipped the AVM to ensure it would never rupture again. Alyssa’s parents, Dawn and Scott Bray, were very pleased with her care. “It was the most horrible time in our lives, and yet the staff at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest actually made it great because they saved Alyssa’s life,” Dawn says.
Alyssa pulled through three surgeries and went to physical therapy for months. While she’s not yet 100 percent back to herself, and may never be, she is ready to tackle her senior year of high school. She was able to keep up with her studies (and was even able to attend the junior prom with her boyfriend), so she feels she’ll be able to pick up where she left off mentally.
Physically, she still has some challenges. Her right side is a little weak and her balance is slightly off. She also has some issues with double vision. Nevertheless, she’s looking forward to the future and plans to attend college for speech therapy or to become a teacher—plus she hopes someday soon she’ll be able to drive the convertible she got for her 16th birthday.
This page last updated 10/27/09 03:14 PM
