"Then my doctor referred me to Dr. Roger Tart, a radiologist at Mobile Infirmary. He told me, after reviewing everything, that they had decided I was a good candidate for a new procedure using a platinum coil. I know this had not been done in this part of the state before, but I was eager to find out more," said Bray.

"The doctors told me the numbness I felt was not a typical symptom of aneurysms. The patient ordinarily complains of intense headaches, but I had not had any headaches. I believe God was in all of this from the beginning, showing me there was something wrong and that I needed to seek help. When they found the aneurysm and they offered me a new treatment, I knew this was what God wanted for me," Bray explained.

"So I had the procedure, and they put the coils behind my eyes," she said. "The procedure only lasted about six hours. Since then I have done extremely well. I have not been sick at all. I had some double vision at first, but that is all gone. It has just been absolutely amazing! I only missed one service at church. I want to give God all the credit, because I know he is the one that guides the hands and the abilities of these fine doctors," Bray said.

According to Tart, who performed the coil embolization procedure, this is a revolutionary device that greatly reduces the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

"The endovascular coil procedure is a significant step forward in the development of new techniques to fight stroke," said Tart. Nearly 40,000 people in the United States are diagnosed each year with such aneurysms and up to 25 percent of these cases, the aneurysm or the overall medical condition of the patient is deemed inoperable or at high-risk for surgical repair.

"Until the last few years, little could be done to treat such high-risk brain aneurysms," said Tart. "These aneurysms can rupture, causing death or serious disability as a result of hemorrhagic stroke."

The endovascular coil is a soft, platinum alloy micro-coil released into the site of the aneurysm in the blood vessel by a micro-catheter. Once in place, this forms a clot which fills the aneurysm and stops the bleeding, thereby reducing the likelihood of rupture and stroke. "An aneurysm can occur anywhere in the body, but it is especially life-threatening in the brain," explained Tart. "If the aneurysm ruptures, the patient will decline rapidly. A ruptured aneurysm causes bleeding around the brain, which leads to headaches, diminished strength, and coma. The endovascular coil procedure allows us to treat these intracranial aneurysms," Tart said. This procedure can be performed with the patient awake. However, Bray did have general anesthesia while the coils were being placed. "This procedure can be performed alone or combined with surgery depending on what would benefit the patient most. The recovery time from endovascular therapy is often shorter that for surgery. It can be as short as one to two days," Dr. Tart said. In fact with Mrs. Bray, the endovascular coil embolization was performed in combination with surgical repair of a second intracranial aneurysm by Dr. Middleton." Troy H. Middleton, M.D., is a neurosurgeon at Mobile Infirmary.

"Mobile Infirmary Medical Center is the only hospital in this area to have obtained the equipment and training to perform the endovascular coiling," Tart said. The procedure was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1995.

For more information about this and other lifesaving procedures, please call Mobile Infirmary's Health Resource Center at (251) 435-2508.