About

On November 12, 2009, Roger Diaz was rushed to Fallbrook Hospital because he had a seizure, a couple of hours later his condition was diagnosed as a cerebral aneurysm which had ruptured.  He was then air lifted to Scripps La Jolla Hospital where he and his family waited for a neurosurgeon to handle the operation.  They are told that the resident surgeons would not be able to do the surgery because it was such a high risk that even they were not confident about it; the risk of causing a worse stroke was quite high.  The only option the hospital was left with was to possibly fly a qualified neurosurgeon in from a neighboring city hospital but even that would require time, which is essential to Roger’s condition.  Although they said he was stable, we were sure that the situation would cause more damage the longer they waited…however, there was nothing anyone can do but wait.  It wasn’t until the next evening that Roger’s family received an update on the status of the surgery.  They were able to find a neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Ghosh, to perform the surgery at 7:30 am the next morning.  Friends and family flood the waiting room of the Surgical ICU that night hoping to speak with Roger and give him their love and support.  We were told that the chances of him making it through this surgery was 40%; that just sounded so surreal…I kept thinking 4 out of 10 people make it through this, that’s frightening.

The morning of the brain surgery, Roger was ready to take on the battle; you couldn’t hear a single sign of fear in his voice.  The surgery was scheduled to be 4-6 hours long; it ended around 3:00 pm.  The doctor finally came into the waiting room to reveal the good news, the surgery was a success — in his words, “it couldn’t have gone any better.”  The aneurysm was removed, however, they did see signs of a minor stroke but it wouldn’t be anything he couldn’t recover from.  The doctor mentioned though that even if the surgery was a success, the next couple of days would be critical as they observe any side effects or complications the surgery could have caused, so he definitely wasn’t in the clear yet.  The next morning, CAT Scans reveal that he had some swelling in the brain which was causing pressure to build up which is not good.  He had to undergo surgery again; this time to remove and freeze a cranial bone flap to allow the brain to swell without pressure building up…the cranial bone flap would be replaced after the swelling subsides.  That surgery went well and he was back in ICU stable and recovering.

Days go by and Roger was still in stable condition, everything was looking good until another complication rose.  Nearly a week later he begins to suffer from vasospasms which were caused by the ruptured brain aneurysm.  From what I have read, vasospasms are the next feared complication, next to rebleeding, resulting from brain aneurysms. (click links to learn more) He was back in critical condition, vasospasms could cause a blood vessel to shut down which is not good.  A catheter was also inserted to his heart to monitor the blood flow and pressure.  He is now still on life support but stable, we are all hoping and praying that he gets to wake up soon.  He is definitely fighting this thing with all of his might and we have faith that he will make it through this battle.

I will keep blog posts updated with news and updates on Roger’s condition and his road to recovery.