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New Technology At JMH Helps Fight Potentially Deadly Aneurysms

MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- A South Florida hospital is treating brain aneurysms with new technology. The treatment is minimally invasive and can help get life back to normal for so many people including Bernadette Fields.

Last June doctors told Fields she had a large brain aneurysm, which is the bulging of a blood vessel, behind her eye.

"What ran through my mind is that it could break and I could die. That's what went through my mind," said Fields.

For four months, the 72-year old woman waited in fear for her life because doctors said she could bleed to death if the aneurysm ruptured.

Given Bernadette's family history, she had reason to worry.

"Well my father had an aneurysm," she explained. "He died from one."

Fields got good news from Dr. Ali Sultan, a neurosurgeon at Jackson Memorial Hospital, when he told her about a new FDA approved Pipeline Embolization Device.

It's a small mesh tube inserted through an artery in the leg and threaded to the area in the brain where the aneurysm is located.

"We're able to treat aneurysms that we've never been able to treat in a short amount of time and in a very safe manner," explained Dr. Sultan.

Fields is the first patient to have the procedure performed at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

In photos shown at a news conference at JMH Wednesday, the aneurysm was bulging prior to the procedure. After the procedure, the bulge was gone.

"What this does is it allows the aneurysm to shrink over time," said Dr. Sultan.

The worry is over for this hardworking waitress. Now she'll continue living her life to the fullest.

"She's pretty lucky that we're able to treat this with this type of stent because her particular case was more dangerous than the average aneurysm in that area," said Dr. Sultan.

Jackson is just one of 30 hospitals nationwide now performing this newly approved procedure.

 

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