Brain aneurysm survivors walk in fundraiser

With smiles, hugs and cheers, throngs of brain aneurysm survivors and their family and friends gathered yesterday at Jones Beach State Park to celebrate their successful treatment and raise money for the nonprofit Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

The second annual Brain Aneurysm Awareness Walk, hosted by North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, drew more than 800 people who walked or ran along the boardwalk. Many donned T-shirts of burgundy and white with the cause spelled out across their chests.

Nicole Salant, a registered nurse and the brain aneurysm nurse coordinator at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, along with Dr. David Chalif, the hospital's chief of neurovascular neurosurgery, came up with the idea for the walk last year.

"People don't know about brain aneurysms," Chalif said as he stood among dozens of his patients. "It's a silent killer. There are warning signs, but people don't recognize [them]."

The effort, planned and organized by the hospital's doctors, nurses and by brain aneurysm survivors, raised about $45,000 last year, Salant said. Organizers said they hoped to raise more this year.

Among those attending yesterday's event were three survivors who shared their stories.

Amanda Elgin had just kissed her husband goodbye and was lying in bed on the morning of Feb. 8 when the effects of her ruptured brain aneurysm struck.

Elgin said she remembers feeling hot and trying to get off the bed. She woke up on the floor - she had fainted.

When Elgin, crawling on her hands and knees, reached her bedroom door, she called out, and her brother, who lives with her, heard her.

"All I was thinking was, 'God help me,' " Elgin said. "Everything was moving. I couldn't hear anything. I couldn't breathe. It was terrifying . . . I thought I was going to die."

As Elgin's brother helped her back to her bed, her father, who lives nearby, came to her side. He called 911. When paramedics arrived, Elgin was drenched in sweat and disoriented.

After being taken to a local hospital, Elgin was transported to North Shore's Brain Aneurysm Center, where doctors operated on her. She spent more than three weeks in the hospital and more than a month in physical therapy and rehab.

It took Elgin, who is now fully recovered, another six months to return to her job as a patient service assistant at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

"What I have learned is [to] appreciate life," she said. "Life is short, and you have to make the best of it while you can."

Saturday, accompanied by her three children, ages 2, 6 and 8, Elgin said, "It's so good to see other people who made it."

Arthur Cassano was on vacation with his family in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia in August 2007 when, he said, "It felt like someone just hit me in the back of the head with a baseball bat."

Cassano, who works as a construction electrician, was getting ready for bed at the time. Within moments, he was vomiting, his vision was blurry and his right leg had gone numb.

He said he can't remember what happened next. Family members tell him they called 911 and that he was rushed to a local hospital, then flown to the University of Virginia's medical center in Charlottesville, Cassano said. There, doctors found a brain aneurysm had ruptured.

Cassano's memory is vacant until his second week in the hospital. He remained hospitalized for three weeks and away from work for another five months. He credited his full recovery to his doctors, his family and a support group he attended at North Shore University Hospital.

"I feel God said, 'Let this person live because this person is going to do something good,' " he said of his harrowing experience.

So far for Cassano, doing good has meant attending support group meetings to help other survivors, and enlisting his wife and three children as volunteers at Saturday's event.

"I hope people get enough information that they can be aware and know the warning signs so they don't have to go through what I went through," he said.

Kathleen Balsamo said she feels blessed to be alive. She fell victim to a brain aneurysm in March after a night of baking for St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

The wife, mother of three and grandmother had just finished baking Irish soda bread when she became ill, she said. Like many survivors, she said she doesn't remember what happened and relies on her family's version of the events.

"My daughter said I said, 'Something is wrong. My nose won't stop bleeding,' " Balsamo said. Her family immediately called 911. She first was taken to a local hospital and then to North Shore's Brain Aneurysm Center. There, doctors operated on the aneurysm.

After a month in the hospital and a few days in rehab, Balsamo made a full recovery. She returned to work as a teacher's assistant at Uniondale High School, her alma mater, in September.

The experience has motivated her to warn others about the dangers of brain aneurysms.

She said she still thinks about how that March night could have ended. "I most likely would have gone to bed," Balsamo said, "and that would have been it. I would have had a very tragic end."

Now she is watching her first grandchild grow and enjoying a renewed sense of purpose. "I am very, very fortunate," she said.

Saturday, her husband Albert, 66, smiling, was by her side as she walked with other survivors.

"I'm honored to be among them," she said. "I'm hoping to see them every year."