Alexian compassion enables Bolivian to receive advanced brain treatment
Sergio Jimenez's headaches were so painful that he couldn't go to work. As they worsened, he experienced blurred vision and dizziness. One day, his father visited him at his apartment in La Paz, Bolivia, and found him disoriented and unable to walk because of an acute headache. Hospitalized following this episode, Jimenez, 26,was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a snarled cluster of abnormal blood vessels in his brain. Left untreated, an AVM could cause a stroke or could rupture and cause a fatal hemorrhage.
Doctors said Jimenez could undergo brain surgery for removal of the AVM, which apparently had existed since birth. But they recommended instead that he consider Gamma Knife treatment, an advanced technology for noninvasive brain surgery, because it would be less risky.
The Gamma Knife enables doctors to focus radiation directly and precisely on targets in the brain without affecting healthy surrounding tissue. The only problem: The treatment is unavailable in Bolivia. Jimenez's aunt, Maria Fitzgerald, R.N., a pre-natal educator and lactation consultant at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates, Ill., began researching Gamma Knife locations and was surprised to discover the Illinois Gamma Knife Center, located on the campus of Alexian Brothers Medical Center (ABMC) in Elk Grove Village, Ill.
She contacted Karen Mnichowicz, R.N., Nurse Manager at the Illinois Gamma Knife Center, and described Jimenez's case, noting that he and his wife, Alejandra, recently had become parents of a baby boy, and that Jimenez recently had been laid off his job because of his condition, leaving his wife as the family's sole wage earner. "My husband and I felt that there's no way we can just ignore what's going on over there," says Fitzgerald, a native of Bolivia who, along with a sister, are "like mother figures" to Jimenez."We felt like we had to do something. It's so sad to know there's no control for him.
He has a little baby and is so depressed. He feels very lost, and our family is very concerned."
The family sent Mnichowicz a CD of Jimenez's angiogram, which she showed to doctors at the Illinois Gamma Knife Center. They agreed that he was an ideal candidate for Gamma Knife treatment.
Subsequent discussions with Alexian Brothers Medical Center leaders led to a decision by the hospital to provide Jimenez's Gamma Knife treatment as charity care. "We are a facility that provides charity work and believes in treating patients because of what condition they have, not because of what they can pay," Mnichowicz says."You do what you can because it's the right thing to do." Meanwhile, Fitzgerald and her husband, Daniel, agreed to pay for round-trip airfares for Jimenez and his father, and to host them during their trip to Elk Grove Village for the outpatient Gamma Knife procedure. The AVM is expected to shrink and eventually disappear over time as a result of the treatment, Mnichowicz says.
Jimenez cried tears of joy and gratitude when he learned he had been scheduled for the Gamma Knife treatment, Fitzgerald says. She and her entire family also are very grateful for the compassion and generosity of Alexian Brothers Health System, she says. "I never expected this," she says. "Everyone was able to help me so much with these concerns. It's unbelievable. Just beautiful. Just beautiful."
