San Antonio Newspaper Article

GENEROSITY CARRIES GEORGIAN CANCER PATIENT A LONG WAY

By Elizabeth Allen

Getting hit by a car while cycling is a nightmare any way you look at it, but for Armine Ustian, in Tbilisi, Georgia, it brought her halfway around the world for lifesaving surgery.

After the October cycling accident, doctors scanning the young mother's skull for injuries discovered a golf ball-sized tumor at its base. But it wasn't golf ball shaped. Instead, it was wedged in and among her spinal cord, a major nerve and a vertebral artery.

The doctor in Tbilisi told her mother he didn't think he could do anything about it.

“Frequently in these tumors, it is difficult to preserve the nerve,” said Dr. Donald Hilton, who teamed with fellow neurosurgeon Dr. Arnold Vardiman to remove the tumor last week at Methodist Stone Oak Hospital.

When Ustian, 23, learned of the tumor, all she could think about was her son, David, 6.

“To do the surgery in Georgia is the same as to die,” she said. At best, her doctor said, she'd be paralyzed.

Desperate, her mother went to their church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which put her in touch with Dr. Robert Packard, a retired orthodontist doing LDS humanitarian work in Georgia.

Packard sent photos of Ustian's MRI results through his phone to his niece's husband — Hilton. He also donated frequent-flier miles to get Ustian to the United States, and the doctors and Methodist Healthcare System agreed to waive their charges.

By isolating the nerve in a separate procedure, working in very tiny spaces, and trading off every 45 minutes over five hours to keep from getting fatigued, the doctors were able to remove the tumor and save the C5 nerve.

The minimally invasive technique, done through an 18-millimeter tube inserted in the back of Ustian's neck, is normally used for disc herniations and nerve pinches, Hilton said. Because of the small hole, the large tumor and the high-risk area, the doctors plan to submit a case report on the procedure to a neurosurgery journal.

They weren't sure it would work so well.

“If we had damaged the C5 nerve root ... we were planning on a third surgery and therapy to treat what could have been a paralyzed left shoulder,” Hilton said. “I don't think she will need a physical therapist at all.”

A single mother, Ustian lives with her parents, who are caring for David. On a borrowed laptop, she talks with him daily using an Internet phone application.

Friday, it was midday in Texas and David's bedtime in Tbilisi. The lively child proudly told her about his good grades, practiced his English and blew his mother kisses.

After signing off, tears filled Ustian's eyes. She said she is deeply grateful to the doctors, the hospital, and the nurses for “allowing me to go back to my son. When you are a single parent, this is all you can think about.”