If you’ve been to the doctor’s office, you know about the paperwork you have to fill out before you get to see the physician. The questions about your family history of cancer, heart attacks, high blood pressure, diabetes -- each member of your family who has one of these conditions, increases your own risk of having it.
But there is one condition that doctors don’t ask about, and it’s a question that could save your life and the lives of your family members.
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Dr. Ricardo Hanel, a neurosurgeon at Baptist Health Jacksonville, is one doctor on a mission to add two words to that questionnaire that could impact your health.
“A brain aneurysm is like a bulge, like a stretch on a blood vessel,” Hanel explained.
Ezra Sneed, whose sister, Rhonda Baker was diagnosed with two giant brain aneurysms, said, “It was a surprise. I didn’t know what an aneurysm was.”
Faith plays a major role in Sneed’s and Baker’s lives.
“When you’re trusting the Lord, you just feel good,” Sneed said.
After Baker woke up one morning with blurry vision, an MRA scan revealed the aneurysms.
Hanel was able to snake a catheter from Baker’s groin to her brain, diverting blood from the aneurysm and stopping it from growing. He was also able to save Sneed from the same fate, or even worse.
Sneed had the same minimally invasive procedure as her sister and they are both living proof that it’s important to talk about brain aneurysms with your doctor and your family.
If you have first-degree relatives with a brain aneurysm, your risk of having one goes up from four to six percent.
“It’s very important to educate all the way from primary care physicians to the whole population,” Hanel said.
He is on a mission to spread the word about brain aneurysms and the family connection.
The MRA scan used to detect brain aneurysms is done on the same machine that’s used for an MRI, but it just looks at brain vessels and allows doctors to determine whether to do a procedure or monitor it.
It’s vital that you find the aneurysm before it’s too late. If it ruptures, you have a four out of ten chance of dying from it. And, only about 20% who do survive get back to their full capacity afterward.