A Second Chance at Life: Stephen’s Story

“You’re lucky to be alive.”

Those were the first words Stephen B. remem­bers hear­ing from George Pon­tikis, MD, Vas­cu­lar Sur­geon at Duly Health and Care, after arriv­ing at Edward Hospital.

Before arriv­ing at the hos­pi­tal, Stephen was at home when severe back pain came on sud­den­ly and he passed out. He was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal, where doc­tors dis­cov­ered just how seri­ous the sit­u­a­tion was. He had a 9‑centimeter rup­tured tho­ra­coab­dom­i­nal aor­tic aneurysm with dissection.

“There were no symp­toms. I didn’t have any indi­ca­tion at all,” Stephen said.

A life-threat­en­ing emergency

Accord­ing to Dr. Pon­tikis, about 50% of patients with this con­di­tion die before reach­ing the hos­pi­tal, and of those who make it to the hos­pi­tal, approx­i­mate­ly 50% do not sur­vive surgery.

“Due to the extent of his dis­sec­tion and aneurysm dis­ease, Stephen was not a can­di­date for a con­ven­tion­al stent repair,” Dr. Pon­tikis explained. ​“Open surgery also car­ried sig­nif­i­cant risk.”

There was no com­mer­cial­ly avail­able stent that could be used for Stephen at the time. Instead, Dr. Pon­tikis and his team need­ed to per­form an emer­gent physi­cian-mod­i­fied endovas­cu­lar aor­tic repair, a high­ly spe­cial­ized pro­ce­dure in which they cus­tomized a stent to Stephen’s anato­my to seal the aneurysm while pre­serv­ing blood flow to his crit­i­cal organs.

“Giv­en he was rup­tured and had low blood pres­sure, we per­formed his sur­gi­cal repair under light seda­tion and local anes­thet­ic with­out the need for gen­er­al anes­the­sia,” Dr. Pon­tikis said. ​“We per­formed this per­cu­ta­neous­ly, with­out any open incisions.”

The pro­ce­dure was suc­cess­ful, but Stephen’s recov­ery was just beginning.

Know your risk: Like Stephen, many peo­ple with an aor­tic aneurysm have no symp­toms until it’s an emer­gency. If you’re over 65, have smoked, or have a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of aneurysms, talk with your Duly provider about whether a sim­ple ultra­sound screen­ing is right for you. If you ever have sud­den, severe pain in your chest, abdomen, or back, call 911 right away.

Learn about Vas­cu­lar Surgery at Duly >

The road back

Stephen spent 13 days in the ICU. When he woke up, he could­n’t feel or move his legs.

After 48 hours, he could move his big toe slight­ly on his right foot. That move­ment gave his care team some­thing to work with. Stephen remem­bers a neu­rol­o­gist notic­ing his toe move and say­ing, ​“Okay, we can work with that.”

After leav­ing the ICU, Stephen spent four weeks at Mar­i­an­joy Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­ter, begin­ning the dif­fi­cult work of rebuild­ing his strength and mobil­i­ty. Dr. Pon­tikis remained close­ly involved through­out, check­ing on Stephen regularly.

“I think I saw him every day for the 13 days I was in the ICU,” Stephen said.

Stephen also remem­bers Dr. Pon­tikis telling him what the road ahead might look like.

“He said, ​‘Okay, you’ve got a year. You’ve got to work hard, and in a year, you may hit a plateau. Your improve­ment may go slow­er than you want,’” Stephen recalled.

Stephen took those words seri­ous­ly, describ­ing Dr. Pon­tikis’ per­son­al­i­ty as sim­i­lar to that of a coach.

“I equate his per­son­al­i­ty to that of a foot­ball coach,” he said. ​“He’s pump­ing you up, say­ing, ​‘Man, let’s run through a brick wall. You’ve got to work. You’ve got to work hard if you’re going to recover.’”

Progress looks dif­fer­ent now

Today, Stephen has come a long way from those first days in the ICU. He has gone from being unable to move his legs to walk­ing inde­pen­dent­ly, though he’s still work­ing to build strength and improve his bal­ance. He can walk about half a mile before exhaus­tion sets in.

“That’s far away from where I start­ed,” he said.

There are still things he wish­es he could do. ​“Two years ago, I could run up a hill and push my grand­kids in a stroller, and now I can’t,” Stephen said. He’s also learned to rec­og­nize how much progress he’s made by focus­ing on what he can do now. 

“Where I could bare­ly walk up steps, now I’m walk­ing up steps while still hang­ing onto a handrail.”
For Stephen, progress often comes in small ways. ​“It’s not every day, but every week or every cou­ple of weeks, I notice some­thing and think, ​‘Oh, I was nev­er able to do that. Now I can do it.’”

Look­ing back at every­thing he has been through, Stephen says the expe­ri­ence showed him what he was capa­ble of.

“It real­ly showed me that I had grit and deter­mi­na­tion,” he said.

That deter­mi­na­tion is root­ed in his desire to keep enjoy­ing life with his family.

“I’ve got three kids and five grand­kids. I want to con­tin­ue to enjoy life, so I’m going to con­tin­ue to work hard and do what I need to do to get bet­ter,” Stephen shared.

More than a surgeon

Stephen’s care with Dr. Pon­tikis has con­tin­ued well beyond the emer­gency pro­ce­dure. He sees him for fol­low-up appoint­ments every three to four months and feels that Dr. Pon­tikis has remained per­son­al­ly invest­ed in his recovery.

“Every time I go in for a fol­low-up check­up, I real­ly feel like he has a big sense of own­er­ship of me and my care,” Stephen said. ​“I just feel like he real­ly cares about how I’m progressing.”

Stephen has no doubt about how impor­tant Dr. Pon­tikis was in giv­ing him a sec­ond chance.

“I would­n’t be alive if he had­n’t done what he did, and I would­n’t be alive if he was­n’t a major expert in his field.”

For Dr. Pon­tikis, Stephen’s recov­ery is a reflec­tion of both what mod­ern vas­cu­lar med­i­cine can accom­plish and the deter­mi­na­tion of the per­son at the cen­ter of it.

“He’s a true exam­ple of the mod­ern tech­niques and tech­nolo­gies that help save patients’ lives,” Dr. Pon­tikis said. ​“He as a per­son is the par­a­digm of relent­less deter­mi­na­tion to live and be there for his family.”

Still mov­ing forward

Stephen’s recov­ery hasn’t been quick or easy, but he con­tin­ues to notice progress, find­ing moti­va­tion in the things he can do today that once seemed out of reach.

There are still things he wants to accom­plish, and plen­ty of rea­sons to keep working.

“I’m not done yet.”

Expert vas­cu­lar care, close to home: From pre­ven­tive screen­ings to com­plex, life-sav­ing pro­ce­dures, Duly’s vas­cu­lar sur­geons pro­vide spe­cial­ized care and stay with you through every stage of recovery. 

Meet Dr. Pon­tikis or sched­ule an appoint­ment with Duly Vas­cu­lar Surgery >