Brain Surgeon Saves Young Mother from Illness That Nearly Killed His Own Mother

This Mother’s Day holds special meaning for John Whapham, MD, neurologist at Loyola University Health System (LUHS). Whapham recently performed a life-saving procedure on a Chicago mother of two who had the same brain disorder that nearly claimed his own mother's life 26 years ago.

"We share an incredible connection,” Dr Whapham said of his patient.

When John Whapham was 12, his mother was diagnosed with a brain disorder called an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) At that time, in the 1980s, a treatment for this illness had not yet been identified.

“The incidence of AVM in America is 0.14 percent, meaning there is 1 case per every 700 persons,” Dr. Whapham explained. An AVM is best described as a tangled mass of blood vessels in the brain.

Today John Whapham, MD, a neurosurgeon at LUHS and director of its neurointerventional program, routinely repairs AVMs and his patients typically go home the next day. Dr. Whapham recently repaired an AVM in Kimberly Johnson, 29, a Navy veteran, whose story struck a familiar chord with her doctor.

A Tale of Two Mothers

Thirty years ago, Whapham's mother, Cecelia Whapham suffered from relentless headaches and other distressing symptoms.

"I felt like I was riding in a boat in rough waters or on a moving train trying to remain upright," Cecelia Whapham recalled.

But little help could be found. After the family traveled across the country in search of specialists who might treat her, she was advised by one leading hospital to go home and put her affairs in order.

Dr. Whapham recalls that his family went to Toledo, Ohio, so that his mother could receive an MRI, back then a cutting-edge diagnostic test, which led to her diagnosis of AVM.

Back in Detroit, the family found a neurosurgeon who was pioneering new techniques and who was willing to operate.

"He told my mother that there were good chances that she might die, be blind and be paralyzed," Dr. Whapham remembers. "But our family knew she would die without the surgery so we felt it was worth a try."

In an 11-hour procedure, the surgeon removed the entire right portion of Cecelia Whapham's skull and laboriously repaired the malformation. “The anesthesiologist told me not to worry, that he would do the worrying for me,” she recalls. His mother spent more than three months recovering from the revolutionary procedure.

"We would give my son money to buy comic books or candy and he would spend it on colorful scarves to hide my wounds and scars," she remembers. "My husband traveled internationally and across the country for business - that was our source of insurance and money - and we had no relatives nearby. John spent his hours at the hospital, after school doing his homework and eating most meals in the cafeteria."