At just five weeks pregnant, Mindy Simon said she had a headache that just wouldn't go away -- and when the symptoms began to include weakness in her left arm, she knew something was wrong.
Mindy was diagnosed with a severe blood clot in her brain.
Dr. Baljit Deol, a neurointerventionalist at Mercy Health Saint Mary's, knew there was one procedure that could save her life and the life of her unborn baby, but it had only been done once before in the entire country.
“Made a hole through the skull through which I was able to insert a needle into the vein and through that access I inserted a plastic sheath to maintain access into that vein which was blocked off through that I could extract the thrombus through kind of like a glorified vacuum cleaner device," he explained.
Dr. Deol says there was some risk to the baby with radiation, but it was the only choice to save both their lives -- a decision Mindy had the courage to make.
Mindy and her husband say their family is now complete with their two boys and Lila Grace, “She’s our miracle baby. We wanted a little girl for so long.”
She entered the world at 8 pounds, two ounces and 20 inches long.
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