Just thinking about the fact of having to go through a brain surgery gives us chills and is pretty scary. What’s scarier is going through the surgery while you’re awake, and the whole world is watching you.
This is what 25-year-old Jenna Schardt went through.
Jenna is studying for her masters in OT (Occupational Therapy) at Brenaue University in Georgia when one day she didn’t feel right.
Jenna was helping stroke patients at a rehab hospital as part of her training in North Texas when she herself started to experience symptoms that were similar to a stroke.
Jenna said, “All of a sudden, during the middle of a conversation, I just couldn’t speak anymore.”
Reports suggest that Jenna had a mass of blood vessels in the part of her brain that affected her speech.
The bleeding from the lesion caused irritation to her brain, which led her to have seizures even having no history of having them.
Jenna was placed on medication, but the seizures didn’t stop and the medicine didn’t help.
Doctors later found out about the lesion, so Jenna had to go through a surgery that would stop her seizures.
Before the surgery, Jenna allowed the Methodist Dallas Medical Center to live stream the surgery on Facebook.
She believed that this would help other people have more knowledge about stroke.
According to the spokesperson of the Methodist Dallas Medical Center, the live stream of the surgery had thousands of viewers.
Dr. Randall Graham and Dr. Bartley Mitchell were the surgeons that removed the lesion from the brain of Jenna.
As the surgery went on, the doctors talked with Jenna and talked about the parts of the brain that controls her speech and motor functions.
Jenna was asked to read out words and describe pictures during the surgery, so doctors could know the areas that they should avoid.
If Jenna stops speaking suddenly, doctors would know the areas that they should avoid.
Before the surgery happened, Jenna said, “It is cool they can do that and that they have this kind of technology.”
She added, “I would rather have them have me awake speaking so we know we’re hitting the right areas.”
The surgery was 45 minutes long, and in the live stream, you can see how calm Jenna was.
During a press conference after the surgery, Dr. Randall Graham said, “It went absolutely fantastic.”
Dr. Graham added, “It went very smooth. As expected, no problems came up. She handled it really, really well. When she woke up, she was really interactive and conversive. Her personality actually kept coming through. We’re really happy with how things went, and I’m really happy with how she’s doing now.”
After the surgery, Jenny was kept in ICU so doctors and nurses could make sure no bleeding or seizures would recur.
Dr. Nimesh Patel, the chief of neurosurgery at the hospital, once she’s in a stable condition, Jenna would be removed out of the ICU.
It is expected that Jenna would be discharged from the hospital this week.
According to Wendy, the mother of Jenna, her daughter is doing fine.
Jenna says she doesn’t feel like she went through brain surgery.