For Oscar-nominated actress Teri Garr, her toughest role yet has been surviving a real-life medical drama.
In December 2006, Garr suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm. A brain aneurysm is a blood-filled bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakening of the vessel wall. She was rushed to the USC University Hospital after her teenage daughter could not wake her from a nap.
“I had no warning signs. I just went to sleep and couldn’t be woken up,” says Garr, who has acted in over 60 feature films, including “Tootsie” and “Young Frankenstein,” and on numerous television shows.
After she was admitted to the Department of Neurological Surgery, a team of physicians decided that due to the severity of the bleeding caused by the rupture, an endovascular approach would be the best type of treatment. Endovascular surgery is a type of minimally invasive surgery that accesses regions of the body through major blood vessels.
In Garr’s case, Donald Larsen, M.D., interventional neuroradiologist and associate professor in the Keck School of Medicine of USC, inserted a catheter into her femoral artery, a large artery in the muscles of the thigh. Using x-ray guided imagery, he directed soft coils of platinum alloy through the body and directly into the aneurysm. The goal of this surgery is to fill the aneurysm with coils and clot it off from the inside. Traditional treatment for aneurysms requires removing part of the skull and closing the base of the aneurysm with a clip.
“There usually is very little recovery time using this cutting-edge endovascular approach,” says Larsen, who has been implementing this technique since it was approved in the mid ‘90s.
Unfortunately Garr, who had severe bleeding as a result of the rupture, did have quite a recovery period. She was in a coma for over a week and underwent extensive rehabilitation for two months. Garr’s recovery was also hampered by her multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic disease that affects the central nervous system for which she has been treated by Leslie Weiner, M.D., neurologist at the Keck School, since 1999.
Nonetheless, she has had what Larsen calls a full recovery—no small feat considering 50 percent of people with a ruptured brain aneurysm die immediately. According to Larsen, of those that survive, half have a stroke as a result and endure significant neurological distress.
“Teri is very lucky to have gotten back to the same level of brain function as she had prior to the rupture,” says Larsen. “It’s quite remarkable.”
Garr also credits the physical activity she did post-aneurysm—including swimming and work on a cross-training machine—with helping her make a strong recovery. “I love Dr. Larsen so much—his guts and his tenacity. I’m here because of him,” she says.
And despite her health setbacks, Garr remains active in Hollywood. She starred in two movies released this past summer, “Expired” and “Kabluey.” The author of a memoir titled “Speedbumps,” which chronicled her experiences with MS, Garr says a second book is in the works.
“I’ve got something to add now—another speedbump,” she says. “I want to write about overcoming incredible odds and moving forward.”
For more information on medical services available at USC, visit The Doctors of USC at www.doctorsofusc.com, or call (800) USC-CARE.
Next: Health News
|
