At age 82, Eleanor Gray resides alone at home. She has neighbors, and she says that they all look after one another.
One day in December 2020, her neighbor had called Eleanor and she did not answer. The neighbor looked in Eleanor's window and found Eleanor down on the floor. Moving quickly, the neighbor called 911 and an ambulance arrived. A maintenance worker from Eleanor's residence accompanied her to the hospital so that she did not have to face the ambulance ride alone.
Eleanor was found to have a clot in the right side of one of the most important vessels in her brain—causing a stroke. This left her with left-sided weakness, difficulty speaking, and an NIH Stroke Scale/Score (NIHSS) of 11. At Boston Medical Center, Dr. Thanh Nguyen removed the clot in her brain by endovascular intervention.
Eleanor recovered tremendously after her stroke. She went from an NIHSS of 11 to 3, and was able to live at home independently and perform almost all of her activities of daily living on her own.
During her clot removal, Eleanor was also found to have another problem within her brain—a dural arteriovenous fistula (dAVF). A dAVF is an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins in the covering of the brain. Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Mohamad Abdalkader later worked together to disconnect the fistula (pictured) via endovascular embolization.
Eleanor is doing well after the procedure and is continuing to enjoy living life independently.