{"id":153522,"date":"2019-08-26T14:05:17","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T18:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=153522"},"modified":"2019-09-04T08:05:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T12:05:45","slug":"my-miracle-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/08\/my-miracle-worker\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My Miracle Worker\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a period of less than four weeks, Dorothy Graves suffered the worst headache she\u2019s ever had, had part of her skull removed to relieve bleeding and pressure on her brain, and turned 97 years old.<\/p>\n

There may have been a lot of uncertainty in the predawn hours of Aug. 1, but when the emergency responders arrived at her West Hartford home, one thing was certain: where they would take her.<\/p>\n

\"Dorothy
Dorothy Graves, days after undergoing a craniotomy at UConn Health (Photo by Mari Steeno)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere was no question I was going to UConn,\u201d Graves says. \u201cI\u2019ve had such good care here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was in the ER, to the ICU, and then they kept evaluating whether to operate \u2013 her age, we obviously knew she was a high risk, and the neuro team came in and they decided we could sit here and watch it and it could get worse, or we can try and drain it,\u201d says daughter Mari Steeno.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose were the choices, and I said, \u2018We should take a chance,\u2019\u201d Graves says. \u201cSo we went ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. David Choi<\/a>, the UConn Health neurosurgeon on call, was prepared to have a difficult conversation with the family about goals of care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I walked in there I was taken for a loop because she was wide awake and talking with me,\u201d Choi says. \u201cUsually with a bleed of that size and that much brain compression, patients are not in good shape, they\u2019re not fully alert and able to participate in that discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. David Choi, UConn Health neurosurgeon (photo by Tina Encarnacion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Graves was suffering a brain bleed known as a subdural hematoma. Treatment usually involves a craniotomy, the temporary removal of part of skull, so the surgeon can drain the blood and relieve the pressure on the brain. It\u2019s a risky procedure, even more so for someone in her mid-90s.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause her neurologic exam was so good, I felt she would be a good candidate for removal of that blood,\u201d Choi says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him he saved me, he was my miracle worker,\u201d Graves says.<\/p>\n

Steeno, who lives in California wasn\u2019t able to get to her mother\u2019s side until the morning after the surgery. By then, her care team already was removing the breathing tube.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty unusual, a really quick turnaround,\u201d Steeno says. \u201cShe was breathing on her own, her vitals were stable \u2013 a sign that this 96-year-old patient came through this serious operation successfully and quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within a week she was back in her home, where she would start physical and occupational therapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was pretty independent before the operation, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to preserve,\u201d Choi says.<\/p>\n

A retired nurse who worked into her 70s, Graves says she has longevity in her family, particularly among the women. She has 15 great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a quilter, and that\u2019s what kept me going,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s math, it\u2019s dexterity, it\u2019s everything. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s what kept me going.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, and perhaps some divine intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the time I\u2019m laying here like this and I\u2019m looking at the ceiling, and I\u2019m talking to God, I said, \u2018There is a God because You\u2019re over there helping me, I know,\u2019\u201d Graves says, then recalling, when she was able to speak again, \u201cI asked for the chaplain, and she\u2019s sitting right here. I said, \u2018You are all in white, you have white feathers all around you. You\u2019re my angel.\u2019 Somebody\u2019s up there watching me, believe me, I know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s an awesome lady, she\u2019s so sweet.\u201d Choi says.<\/p>\n

Monday, she celebrated her 97th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n

And Steeno says her mother\u2019s already \u201cback to her strong, independent, determined self. Mom has lots of visitors and will continue quilting!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s what a nonagenarian calls her neurosurgeon after surviving a high-stakes brain surgery at UConn Health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":153536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-153522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 07:43:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153537,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153522\/revisions\/153537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/153536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153522"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=153522"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=153522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}