Posted on Thursday, 4th November 2010 by Brooke Richmond

Candace DeLaney has always shared her love for books with her daughter Cieara. Recently, they feared their time together was running out.  Candace had a ruptured brain aneurysm.

“When the ambulance came, they told me my blood pressure was 252 over 152, and after that I was out. I thought I was leaving this Earth,” she said.

“I thought I was about to lose my mother. I thought this was my last day seeing her alive,” said Cieara.

“When an aneurysm is ruptured, there’s a high likelihood that it ruptures again, and if it does rupture again, there’s a very high likelihood that that rupture is worst than the first and often fatal,” said Dr. Colin Derdeyn, Interventional Neuro-radiologist at Washington University School of Medicine

Traditional treatment means cutting open the skull and clamping the aneurysm shut. Candace was treated less invasively. A catheter carries tiny platinum coils into the bulge to close it off from inside the blood vessel.

“What you’re doing with the coil, you’re stuffing the aneurysm from the inside with something that’s going to change the flow inside the aneurysm,” Ricardo Hanel, MD, PhD, Endovascular Neuro-surgeon, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, FL

A stent keeps the coils in place, creating a fence inside the blood vessel that supports the repair.

Now, Candace is enjoying the next chapter in a healthier life. She doesn’t want to miss a thing.

“I’m not letting no grass grow under my feet. Whatever I can do, I’m gonna do,” she said.

One half to two-thirds of brain aneurysms can be treated with the newer, less invasive approach, but some still require open brain surgery for an effective repair.

Smoking and high blood pressure can increase your risk of having a brain aneurysm. They’re most commonly detected in patients ages 35 to 60, and women are more likely to get them than men.

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