When Chris Lorenz insisted on taking his wife, Arlene, to the emergency
room, Arlene insisted that he take her to Hoag.
Arlene had suffered from a headache all day, and by the time night fell,
the pain brought her to her knees. Earlier in the day, she had taken her
father to the Ben & Carmela Du Emergency Pavilion at
Hoag Hospital Irvine. Impressed by the care her father received, Arlene asked Chris to pass
hospitals closer to their home and head to Hoag instead.
The
Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute at Hoag is consistently ranked one of the best in the nation, with state-of-the-art
equipment and remarkable patient outcomes. Arlene did not know what was
happening, but she knew she needed expert care.
In the ER, her
CT scan showed that she suffered from a ruptured brain aneurysm. She was transported to
Hoag Hospital Newport Beach, and the
neuro-interventional team at Hoag stepped in immediately to perform a
minimally invasive endovascular coil embolization procedure that saved her life and spared her from an open brain surgery.
Few hospitals in the area are equipped with the latest-generation imaging
technologies that allow neuro-interventional radiologists to perform complex
minimally invasive image-guided procedures to repair aneurysms and address
stroke and other neurological emergencies.
While Arlene healed from her aneurysm, her condition still concerned her
doctors. Her brain was showing moderate to severe vasospasm, which can
severely restrict the blood supply to the brain and cause a potentially
devastating stroke. She spent 18 days in the intensive care unit where
the vasospasm and her recovery were managed by her expert team.
“Cognitively, I was doing fine, and I was able to answer the neuro-check
questions,” she said. But the vasospasms were not going away, and
she underwent a second procedure, this time to prevent her stroke. One
of her physicians called her an “enigma,” because while she
was still demonstrating vasospasms, her motor and cognitive functions
were normal.
As unusual as her situation was, Arlene said her care was even more extraordinary.
Following two traumatic brain events and several months of
occupational therapy, she is healthy and back to normal, something she said would not have
been possible without the care she received at Hoag.
“I really felt positive in the ICU,” she said. “The people
had good energy, so it made me feel that I’d be okay.”
In gratitude for her recovery, Arlene and Chris threw a party for family,
friends and colleagues. Her guest of honor was Anne Cummings, R.N., B.S.N.,
a Hoag nurse whose compassion greatly helped Arlene through this complicated ordeal.
“It is an honor, to be alive and sit before you today, to share my
story,” Arlene told her party guests. “I am eternally grateful
for the effective procedural skills of
Dr. Christopher Baker, the attentiveness of my neuro ICU team, my rehab therapists and my loving
‘village.’ Without them, I would not have experienced a remarkable
recovery rate that has allowed me this second chance at life.”