From Naperville Sun columnist Hilary Decent:
Surviving stage 5 aneurism earns 29-year-old 'miracle girl' designation
January 10, 2010
Two weeks ago, I featured the sad case of Vicki Kubal, who passed away after suffering a brain aneurism. Aneurisms like hers are usually fatal, but astonishingly, as she was brought into Edward Hospital, a young woman was recovering from the same condition.
Doctors are now referring to 29-year-old Elin Inorio as their "miracle girl." I talked with Elin's mother, Kathy, Here is Elin's story as told to me by Kathy as Elin continues to recover.
Elin Inorio had just finished work at CBK Enterprises on Aurora Avenue in Naperville. For a few days, a coyote had been seen wandering around in the car lot, so she asked her co-worker, Andrew Velker, to walk her to her car. As she feared, the coyote was near her car, but it scampered off as she approached. As Elin opened the door, she felt light headed and heard a whooshing sound. Andrew thought he heard her call out, and spinning around saw her on the ground vomiting, her shoulders shaking. Having served in Iraq, Andrew knew a seizure when he saw one. He lost no time in putting her in the recovery position and calling for an ambulance, which arrived just three minutes later. Five minutes later she was at Edward Hospital, paramedics diagnosed a stroke, and she was taken straight into the ER where she was seen by Dr. Jeffrey Miller, medical director of Edward's new Neurosciences Institute.
Her mother, Kathy Inorio, was called as the drama unfolded. She was leaving Alcatel Lucent, where she works as an administrative assistant.
"I was talking to my son on my cell when I saw I had a call from Elin's phone coming in. But when I answered, it wasn't her, it was a paramedic telling me she had collapsed. I couldn't believe it. I'd only just spoken to her and she was fine," she said. "The drive down Washington was the longest drive of my life. Every light was red. I prayed all the way down. The rest was almost surreal."
Kathy, her husband and two other children spent five anxious days in the family waiting area as a series of "miracles" unfolded. The first was that Andrew had acted so quickly. The second was that Elin had regained consciousness while still in the ambulance. She survived the most serious cerebral brain aneurism, stage five. Elin had a leaking blood vessel, which doctors were able to repair with a delicate operation in which a titanium coil was threaded into the brain through the groin. But Elin wasn't out of the woods yet.
"After the procedure we were ecstatic, but we were still on the brink of disaster," Kathy said. "She could have easily been paralysed, but wasn't. However, because there was so much leaked blood left in her brain they couldn't drain she suffered vaso spasms for two weeks."
Vaso spasms cause the blood vessels to shut tight, and just one could mean instant death. Elin suffered five, but each time medical staff were able to save her. She even had angioplasty, a procedure usually given to heart patients, in her brain.
Kathy discovered that aneurisms can be genetic. Her sister was left paralysed by one when she was just 18. Kathy now urges anyone who has had a victim in their family to be tested, because weaknesses in blood vessels can be repaired before they cause any harm.
The Inorios are members of SS Peter and Paul Church in Naperville, and say their faith and the prayers of so many people got them through their ordeal. Elin is on the way to a full recovery, and hopes to be back at work by March.
"She says for the rest of her life she will pray for all the people who prayed for her," Kathy said. "It's like God has granted us a wonderful miracle. We were in the family area of the hospital at the time Vicki Kubal was brought in. We prayed with her family then, and we pray for them now. We don't know why one person survives and another doesn't. We think it's the difference in age, but I will be thanking him for our gift all my life."
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