An aneurysm the size of an olive is one of three, including one that has already burst, in Diane Lefever’s brain.
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

LIVERMORE FALLS – Diane Lefever gives an outward appearance of being strong as her brain surgery nears. But on the inside, she’s nervous.

The 37-year-old mother of five children ranging in age from 3 to 18 has had one brain aneurysm burst and is scheduled to undergo brain surgery on March 2 in New York for another one in the center of her brain.

This aneurysm is about as big as an olive, Lefever said, and “is surrounded by nerves that make you speak and breathe, and do just about everything you take for granted that you don’t even think about.”

Lefever sat in a recliner as her youngest child, Adrian, played with the family’s dog, Jack.

For now, Lefever can’t lift anything, including her 3-year-old daughter. She has a hard time remembering, suffers from migraines and is tired all the time.

She needs to keep calm and not stress over anything.

Sudden symptoms

She had experienced no symptoms until last April when she sat up in bed and felt sick to her stomach.

“My head was spinning,” she said.

She had a seizure and doesn’t remember anything after that, she said.

Doctors discovered that she had three aneurysms in her brain, including the one that burst at that time.

The third aneurysm is small and not as worrisome as the one in the center, she said.

She was referred to Dr. Robert Solomon, chief of neurosurgery, at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.

Lefever said she was told the most skilled doctor was going to have a hard time to fix the aneurysm.

“If this one bursts, there is no way of surviving it,” she said. “I’ll be dead, that’s it. There are three arteries that feed off this nerve.”

Instead of coming in through the side of her head, she said, doctors are going to come in near the back and remove part of her skull so they can see if they can clip the aneurysm.

Once they get in there, they have five minutes to clip it.

If they can’t, “I have to wait three days to make sure I’m stable and then they’ll put me under cardiac arrest.

“When they get inside that time, they’ll have an hour to clip off the aneurysm.”

“It is very risky,” Lefever added.

Usually a third of the people come out normal afterwards, and the others aren’t so lucky, she said.

‘Crossing our fingers’

“I survived the first one, which is very lucky,” Lefever said. “Most people die before they get to a hospital if an aneurysm bursts…. If I don’t get this fixed, I have a 50 percent chance I’ll live another 10 years. I don’t want to risk it, especially after the first one burst.”

Her husband of 15 years, Kenneth, a medical courier, doesn’t like to talk about it, she said.

But he and clerks at the Livermore Falls Town Office are spreading the word about a benefit supper and dance beginning at 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 28, at the American Veterans Hall in Jay.

The kids seem to be taking it OK, she said. Her daughter, Heather has been helping out a lot.

“They’re worried,” she said. “We’re all crossing our fingers and hoping I come out normal. I’m very nervous. I’m very, very nervous. The way I see it, I’d rather come out paralyzed than retarded. I don’t want to have my kids see me come home as a different person. That would scare them.”

She said her husband is more worried than she is. It’s always harder on the other person, Lefever said.

“He said to me, ‘You’re taking this so well,'” she said. “I’m not really. In my mind, I’m not. I have to be strong for them.”

dperry@sunjournal.com

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