Annie Nelson - Her World Changed in a Breath

Annie remembers the day a blinding headache, vomiting and loss of balance sent her to the emergency room and began a day of terrifying revelations. Her doctors could not control her symptoms, and couldn't find a cause until CT scan revealed a massive acoustic neuroma, eighth cranial nerve brain tumor that was literally crushing her cerebellum. The doctors immediately scheduled surgery, and advised her to get prepped immediately. She said no.

Annie is a fighter, an activist and the founder of the American Soldiers Network dedicated to raising awareness for the needs of our veterans, our injured soldiers, their families and the challenges they all face during the reintegration process when they return from Iraq and Afghanistan. She takes nothing for granted. She tells how she immediately called on friends and colleagues and found one of the premiere neurosurgeons in the country, Steven Giannotta, M.D. at USC, and convinced him to see her right away.
Dr. Gianotta explains how her tumor, while benign, had grown so large, and was impinging on so many vital nerves and tissues, that only a surgical solution, a retrosigmoid craniotomy, was viable. His task at this point was not merely to save her life but spare her facial nerves
This is just one of thirteen videos that Pasadena Advertising Marketing and Design produced for the USC Keck School Of Medicine: true stories of normal, healthy people whose everyday lives were suddenly shattered by catastrophic medical emergencies no one could predict or prepare for.  The patients themselves tell their stories of survival with the help of their doctors: the neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons of the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
This is the kind of information my wife and I wished we'd had when our daughter’s life was nearly ended by a brain hemorrhage in Scotland in 2007. We spent hours pouring over the Internet scouring all the information we could find on aneurysms and the treatment, coil embolization. Most of what we found was so arcane and technical that we could not truly grasp what was happening. We created these videos for people like us – people who need immediate answers, to urgent questions, in idioms they can easily understand.
With these videos at their fingertips, patients, friends and families dealing with life threatening neurological threats will finally have a place to turn for practical answers that they can understand.

These videos were conceived and produced by Tony Nino and Suzanne Marks at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design.
The director and DP was James OKeeffe and the editor was Peter Bayer.

Phil Sands – Yo! You wanna go diggin' in MY brain?

To call Phil Sands a character would elevate the definition of that word to dizzying heights. He's a force of nature. But when he was hit with an excruciating and debilitating headache, he bowed to his wife's wishes and got some serious imaging studies done, a CT scan, MRI and finally an angiogram. The doctors discovered an eight mm basilar tip aneurysm that not only caused his headache, but was in imminent danger of a crippling or deadly rupture. Suddenly, the worst headache of his life was the least of his problems.



But Phil was Brooklyn born and bred, and too hard headed to take anything or anyone at face value. He did his homework, and searched all over his adopted home town of Los Angeles to find the right place and the right people to make this problem go away for good. He checked out numerous hospitals. He grilled the doctors. He grilled the neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, and their staffs. Only after he was completely satisfied that he had found the right place, did he decide to proceed.
Arun P. Amar M.D., from the USC Keck School of Medicine, explains how he and his Neurosurgical/neuroradiological team - Arun Amar, M.D., William Mack, M.D., and Medical Director, Donald Larsen, M.D., treated him using stenting and coil embolization. For all his bravado, Phil recognizes how close he was to disaster, and how much he owes to his wife, his family and friends and the doctor's and staff who became some of his biggest fans.
This is just one of thirteen videos: true stories of normal, healthy people whose everyday lives were suddenly shattered by catastrophic medical emergencies no one could predict or prepare for.  The patients themselves tell their stories of survival with the help of their doctors: the neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons of the Keck School of Medicine at USC. 
This is the kind of information my wife and I wished we'd had when our daughter’s life was nearly ended by a brain hemorrhage in Scotland in 2007. We spent hours pouring over the Internet scouring all the information we could find on aneurysms and the treatment, coil embolization. Most of what we found was so arcane and technical that we could not truly grasp what was happening. We created these videos for people like us – people who need immediate answers, to urgent questions, in idioms they can easily understand.
With these videos at their fingertips, patients, friends and families dealing with life threatening neurological threats will finally have a place to turn for practical answers that they can understand.


These videos were conceived and produced by Tony Nino and Suzanne Marks at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design.
The director and DP was James OKeeffe and the editor was Peter Bayer.

The Story of Kelly Mitchell

Every expectant mother has doubts. Will she be a good mother? Will she make the same mistakes her mother made? How can she protect her baby from harm? Never do expectant mothers ask what happens if an undiscovered brain tumor threatens both her life and the life of her baby, or whom does she turn to for help.

Well into her seventh month, Kelly Mitchell began experiencing symptoms that were way beyond anything her mother had ever warned her about. Beyond the nausea, daily milkshake cravings, and frequent bathroom visits, she began to encounter severe memory lapses and loss of vision. After visiting numerous doctors and specialists, an MRI revealed a terrifying development. She had a Craniopharyngioma, a benign brain tumor that, while not cancerous, was approximately the size of an avocado. She desperately needed a craniotomy, an hours-long, open brain surgery that would threaten the life of her unborn baby.
In this video, Kelly tells the story of her journey through this terrifying time. She felt her memory slipping away and her vision fading with each passing day. Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Charles Liu, USC Keck School of Medicine, explains the issues surrounding the precise timing necessary for the Pterional Craniotomy to save the lives and quality of life for both mother and baby. Setting the exact date was crucial, and there was virtually no room for error. He worked closely with her OB GYN to determine the earliest possible date to deliver her baby, and leave enough time for  surgery before the ever-increasing pressure of the growing tumor caused irreparable brain damage. 
This is just one of thirteen videos: true stories of normal, healthy people whose everyday lives were suddenly shattered by catastrophic medical emergencies no one could predict or prepare for.  The patients themselves tell their stories of survival with the help of their doctors: the neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons of the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
This is the kind of information my wife and I wished we'd had when our daughter’s life was nearly ended by a brain hemorrhage in Scotland in 2007. We spent hours pouring over the Internet scouring all the information we could find on aneurysms and the treatment, coil embolization. Most of what we found was so arcane and technical that we could not truly grasp what was happening. We created these videos for people like us – people who need immediate answers, to urgent questions, in idioms they can easily understand.
With these videos at their fingertips, patients, friends and families dealing with life threatening neurological threats will finally have a place to turn for practical answers that they can understand.
For more information contact USC Neurosurgery.

These videos were conceived and produced by Tony Nino and Suzanne Marks at Pasadena Advertising Marketing Design. The director and DP was James OKeeffe and the editor was Peter Bayer.