UCLA STROKE CENTER
PATIENT HIGHLIGHT
JAMIE MORISHITA
HOLDING OUT HOPE t first her right hand tingled. The numbness crawled onto her face and crept down her leg, paralyzing her. Frightened, Jaime Morishita visited doctor after doctor. At 30 years old, she appeared healthy, with her only problem being high blood pressure. The medications failed to stop these bouts of paralysis. As a mother of three, she grew more fearful. She and her husband had planned to have another baby, but her health would not permit it. The episodes and headaches increased. “As long as I don’t breathe too hard,” Jaime would say to herself, “I can control it.” What Jaime didn’t realize was these episodes were strokes, transient ischemic attacks on her brain. The blood flow would just stop, causing the brain to lose oxygen. “Even just blowing bubbles for my children at the park would trigger the numbness to strike me and disconnect my entire right side from my body,” Jaime said. She stopped exercising
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and going places where she may exert too much energy, for fear of the episodes. By her 32nd birthday, a neurologist diagnosed her with Moyamoya, a cerebrovascular disorder that causes narrowing of the carotid arteries and, as a result, tiny blood vessels that form to compensate for the lack of blood flow in the brain. The tangle of tiny blood vessels on the MRI scans looks like a “puff of smoke,” translated to Moyamoya in Japanese. These tiny blood vessels could break at any time causing hemorrhage— essentially a major stroke. Her neurologist referred her to Dr. Nestor Gonzalez, a pioneer and expert in the treatment of cerebrovascular disorders. Dr. Gonzalez specializes in the most minimally-invasive approach to treat Moyamoya. On May 7, 2012, Jaime underwent EDAS (Encephalo-Duro-Arterio-Synangiosis), an indirect bypass that involves Dr. Gonzalez carefully removing a native artery from her scalp and implanting it in her
brain. As a result, the brain gives off a chemical to grow blood vessels from the artery, thus revascularizing the brain. Within weeks, on June 27, 2012, she went in for her first angiogram and the blood vessels were sturdily growing, already increasing blood flow in her brain. The mini-strokes stopped. Jaime began to feel normal again. At six months, she received her second angiogram post-op and the vessels continue to grow and flow. Shortly after, Jaime discovered her womb was also growing. An ultrasound confirmed a healthy baby on the way. “I can’t believe that I’m pregnant. I actually didn’t think we would be able to have another child. I was so scared that I was going to have to live with those episodes. Dr. Gonzalez was right to do EDAS. He is amazing. Now I have my miracle baby,” Jaime says, rubbing her six-month bump.
UCLA NEUROSURGERY: INTO THE BRAIN AND BEYOND