Connecticut woman has survived 2 aneurysms
Edith Heeber could have died from an aneurysm, which was bleeding into her brain, in July 2021.
She not only survived the stroke, but recovered enough that she could resume “glamping” trips, as her daughter Taryn Heeber-doody called them, in Heeber-doody’s RV in Granville, Massachusetts
Then, on a routine scan in November 2022, a second aneurysm was found in an unusual location in the brain.
“I’m very fortunate that they discovered it,” Heeber, 81, said. “It was a scan and they were able to get it before it burst. Because they say if it burst — it was a large one — if it burst I wouldn’t be here today. That’s why I said he saved me twice.”
Heeber also feels fortunate that her daughter and son, Bill, live nearby in Enfield. Heeber-doody lived full time with her mother for seven months after the first stroke. Bill Heeber has taken over checking in on their mom.
Dr. Ketan Bulsara, chief of neurosurgery at Uconn Health, repaired the first broken blood vessel, her vertebrobasilar artery, by strengthening it with stents.
Heeber also had four artery spasms, which restrict blood flow and are “a known, life-threatening complication of the type of bleed that she had,” Bulsara said. “With aggressive intensive care unit management, we were able to get her through these episodes.”
He was able to repair the second aneurysm, located on a small branch off the middle cerebral artery, before it burst, using the same method of
entering through an artery in the groin. “It was a highrisk procedure,” Bulsara said. “But given the circumstances, it was the safest procedure for her.”
Edith Heeber spent a short time in rehabilitation and had physical therapy at home, but hasn’t needed medical care since the first aneurysm. She was able to enjoy Thanksgiving two days after the second procedure last year. It could have gone another way. “I was home and I got this excruciating pain in the top of my head,” Heeber said. “And I remember telling my son, who happened to be here
“She is such an incredible woman. She is going strong. Even our primary care physician said that she was a 1% of a 1% for coming out of this as well as she did.” — Taryn Heeber-doody
at the time, to call 911. And they came and they took me to St. Francis [Hospital]. And I don’t remember what they did at St. Francis. I don’t even remember them shipping me over to Uconn. But they did and Dr. Bulsara was there and took care of me and saved me.”
Bulsara is known for having the expertise to treat complex cases like Heeber’s aneurysms. In both, he sent a catheter up through an artery in her upper thigh.
“I just think it’s amazing,” Heeber said. “He’s going through the groin to do something in my brain. You just wonder, how is that possible?”
The procedures were so effective that Heeber wasn’t scheduled for another scan for a year, but she and her children insisted on having one in six months. “I said, ‘What am I going to do? Walk around with a time bomb in my head just waiting to go off?’ ” she said. “So they decided to do six months.”
Heeber is thrilled about one thing. Her son gave her her car keys back. “I was independent. And to have somebody take your independence away is very frustrating. But I’ve got it back.”
Her son had taken the keys when she drove down the street to attend a funeral. “There was nobody here to take me to the Mass and I wanted to go, so I went,” Heeber said. But about a week ago she told him to “put them on the table.”
Her only vision deficit is a small spot in the upper left corner of one eye. The person who tested her vision said, “the only thing I’ll miss is an airplane flying in the sky. I said, ‘Well, I don’t think I’ll be trying to run those over.’ ” Besides that, her daughter said, Heeber suffers a bit from balance issues.
Being 81 years old is “just
a number,” Heeber said. “As long as you’re feeling [well], and you can do what you want to do, that’s all that should matter.” Now she can continue to enjoy her two grandsons and 9-yearold great-grandson.
“We just wanted to keep her in a cocoon,” Heeberdoody
said. “But she’s such an independent, strong woman. It was like tying down the beast. She just wanted to go home and be independent again. It’s good because that takes a little bit of pressure off me and my brother.”
“I love her to pieces,”
Heeber-doody said of her mom. “She’s my best friend. She’s the only person I talk to. She’s the only person I pick up the phone to call. So she’s really my rock. She’s my everything.”
The two spent almost every weekend at the camper, she said. “It’s more a home away from home than anything,” she said. “She goes with me and she helps my friend next door and her husband stack wood. Before this happened, she was on the go constantly, and she would blow the leaves with a backpack blower when we were cleaning up until this happened.”
That weekend in July, though, Heeber didn’t feel well enough to go, and Heeber-doody found out about the stroke while she was up in Massachusetts.
“I was in complete freakout and meltdown,” she said. “I truly had no idea what was going on. And I had talked to my brother, made calls on my way down the mountain. I really shouldn’t have been driving. But I had to get to Uconn.
“When I walked in it was the worst vision I ever saw,” she said. “It was her with a bandage wrapped around her head, with the breathing tube in her mouth and she was just out of it. There was no response. She was sedated after the surgery, but she wasn’t waking up either. So, yeah, it was definitely hell.”
When Heeber’s second aneurysm was found, Bulsara told Heeber-doody that if he couldn’t locate it with a catheter he would have to go through the skull. Luckily, he didn’t have to perform surgery.
Now, Heeber-doody worries about another “time bomb,” even though the chances of a third aneurysm are slim.
“She is such an incredible woman,” she said. “She is going strong. Even our primary care physician said that she was a 1% of a 1% for coming out of this as well as she did.”
Heeber-doody called Bulsara “the most compassionate, caring, thoughtful, considerate doctor” of all her mother’s doctors. “We’re very blessed to still have her and Dr. Bulsara’s exemplary skills in repairing this aneurysm.”
Bulsara said Heeber is “a remarkably vibrant and enthusiastic person who is full of life. It’s truly our privilege and honor to be involved in her care.”