Graduating Ursuline Academy senior Christine Phan had a stroke when she was a sophomore, but fought her way back to health and academic achievement.

Graduating Ursuline senior suffered stroke – and learned to really live

By Jeanne Houck • Community Press • May 26, 2010 

 Graduating Ursuline Academy senior Christine Phan was just a sophomore when a knife-like pain sliced through her brain, nearly knocking her out.

 It was Nov. 17, 2007, and Phan had just suffered a stroke. 

Rushed to the hospital, Phan remembers being hooked up to six beeping machines, surrounded by her parents and sister and thinking, “This is how I am going to die.”

 Phan wasn’t exaggerating the seriousness of the situation

“The doctor informed my family that I had a massive bleeding in my brain,” Phan said. “He said that I had only a 1 percent chance of survival and that I would most likely die within the next few hours.

“However, my mom would not give up on me so easily and argued with the doctor to have a helicopter take me to University Hospital for surgery. After four hours of surgery, I was alive. Nevertheless, the doctors at University Hospital could not reverse the stroke, and when I woke up in the neuro-ICU, my right side was paralyzed.”

Phan was 15.

“The months following my aneurysm were the most trying period of my life,” Phan said. “I couldn’t walk, eat or go to the bathroom on my own. Taking a shower required two extra people. I was like a baby again. I also had trouble finding words and communicating. I could feel people getting frustrated with me and I imagined them thinking, ‘Spit it out already!’

“Many days I felt defeated. I wondered why this happened to me,” Phan said. “Trapped in the confines of my wheelchair, I realized I had a decision to make. I could run away from what had happened to me, or I could start rebuilding my life.

“Today, after countless hours of therapy and hard work, I am living proof that I can conquer my 1 percent chance at life,” said Phan, now 17 and planning to major in international business and minor in psychology at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. She is the daughter of Dean Phan and Angie Trandai and lives in West Chester Township.

“From not being able to walk, I can once again sprint across the tennis court and gracefully hit a backhand,” Christine Phan said. “From struggling to find the simplest words, I have become confident, humorous and trusted enough to be elected by my peers to serve as their senior class co-president.

“Simple rites of passage for normal teenagers, such as getting my driver’s license or having my first boyfriend, are miracles and treasured experiences for me.”

Phan said suffering a stroke was in some ways both the worst and the best thing that has happened to her.

“Before, I was robotic in my academic work, producing the same product over and over,” she said. “My brain injury brought me the gift of being human. Now, I can truly appreciate emotions and moments. I am grateful to simply be alive, because I cannot know when my last minute on earth will be. I have a crooked smile and a scar on my head to remind me of that night, but I also have the knowledge that I can overcome anything I set my mind to.”

Phan credits the Ursuline Academy in Blue Ash community and her relatives, friends and psychologists with refusing to allow her to give up.

“I can’t even begin to thank them,” Phan said.

“Determination, perseverance and laughter at oneself is the advice I would give to kids going through some difficulty like this.” 

Physicians:

Dr. Encarnacion (Air Care)

Dr. Shutter (neurocritical care)

Dr. Choutka (neurosurgery)

Dr. Zuccarello (neurosurgery)

Robert Brown, Cincinnati

“It’s a beautiful day near the end of the summer and I am laying on the walk in front of my house bleeding to death.  I hear sirens approaching from the distance. At the beginning of the summer, I elected to have an endovascular AAA repair. After a series of misadventures and six procedures later, I was delivered by EMS squad to University Hospital ER. The first time my femoral artery pseudo aneurysm ruptured I was actually in the hospital. When, about a month later, home alone, I felt the horrifying warmth and gush again, I called 911, identifying myself, my location and condition. Declining to stay on the phone, I decided to lay on my front walk to “wait for the boys”.

When the squad arrived, I waved, as if the guys couldn’t figure out their patient was the guy laying on the walk in a pool of blood. Wavering on the edge of consciousness, I was transported to the ER. I did not regain full awareness until several minutes later in the ER. Before going to emergency surgery to address the immediate emergency, I met Dr. Giglia.

Over the next couple of days we talked. I recall telling him I couldn’t endure another rupture. He gave me an article discussing the procedure he proposed. We agreed to proceed.

 Now, just over a year since, I am still recovering. I have retained my life and my leg. I am grateful for all the people who participated in this adventure. I am especially grateful to Dr. Giglia and have an enduring admiration for his competence, imagination and confidence. ”

- Robert Brown, Cincinnati

Doctors perform surgery on a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm

 Physicians noted: Joe Giglia, Carlos Rosales, Hosam El-Sayed, Michael Ward, et al.

Ronald Stang was in the basement when a ruptured aortic aneurysm very nearly ended his life. As his abdomen began to fill with blood, Ronald miraculously located a phone and dialed 9-1-1, even as sharp pains began to signal massive internal bleeding. The ambulance arrived, rushing a fading Ronald to the closest community hospital. Doctors there realized the severity of his condition and phoned vascular surgeon, Dr. Joseph Giglia of University Hospital. Immediately, Dr. Giglia arranged to have Ronald sent to University Hospital via Air Care, University’s emergency helicopter.

Once there, he received the appropriate care, and within four months, had recovered enough to mow the yard. It seems everyone has their own route to becoming living proof.