Few people know what an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is. Robert Hall certainly didn’t –until he suffered a brain seizure on August 23rd and awoke to find himself in the hospital, surrounded by his family.
[Transcript]
[Once in a lifetime events can sneak
up on you
On August 23, 2019, Robert Hall suffered
a massive seizure as a result of a life-
threatening arteriovenous malformation
(AVM) on his brain.
This is his story]
[Robert Hall
Owner / Operator Aquasports
Saint John's, Antigua and Barbuda]
Robert Hall:
It happened on August 23rd. It was pretty much a regular day and all the days leading up to it were pretty normal. I was outside in the warehouse looking at some product that got wet in shipping. So after inspecting that, I was leaned over and checking it out and then it just happened right after that. I remember coming to later on that day and just being like, "What the hell happened?" And then everybody's like, "Well, you had a seizure."
[Italo Linfante, M.D.
Medical Director of Interventional
Neuroradiology and
Endovascular Neurosurgery
Miami Neuroscience Institute and
Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute]
Dr. Linfante:
The embolus was fairly large. First of all, it was dangerous because the patient developed sudden onset of seizures and never had a seizure before, and develop severe headaches. So this is a warning sign that something's up in the area.
[AVM imaging]
Robert Hall:
The AVM basically is a mass of veins and arteries that are blood vessels that are all clumped together. From what I understand, a lot of people don't actually make it past the first seizure because they do hemorrhage right away.
Dr. Linfante:
The approach that we use here on CVI and in North America more successfully is, when possible, embolization followed by surgical resection. So you close the AVM as much as you can. So when the surgeon goes in, he doesn't have to deal with the hemorrhage. The AVM comes out like a solid block, almost like a benign tumor. Embolization was very successful. Of course, the AVM almost completely, almost like a cured by embolization alone, and then went to surgery and surgery was successful. The AVM was completely resected. We did follow up angiograms after the surgery to demonstrate, to prove that the AVM is completely gone. And this patient's doing very well. Had some minor headaches, but reasonably back to his self.
[AVM imaging changing over time]
[On November 8th,
Robert was able to return home.]
Robert Hall:
They basically saved my life. I honestly wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them because more than likely I probably would have had another seizure, which would have been a bit more dangerous. It could have led to a brain hemorrhage. So for sure, to the entire team at Baptist, I can't say enough. I can't. I'm forever grateful to them.
[Robert and his family together on a boat]
[End of Transcript]
