Life
Tara Mund Stafford Family
Taking one step at a time
By Elizabeth Craft
Anvil Herald Staff
Tara Mund Stafford was a very active woman,
coaching a Little League team at one point, maintaining her yard
and working full time as a Escrow Officer Assistant, not to mention the
mother of two very active kids, Maeghan and Caleb. One
morning she was going about her normal routine, talking to her
boyfriend, Arch, via her computer at very early hours of the
morning because he was in Israel training for his job. Tara’s kids,
were sleeping, cozy in their beds. She told Arch she was going to
go back to bed for a little while before she needed to get the kids
up and ready for school and get herself ready for work. She never
thought anything different, let alone life altering, would occur
that September 7, 2007. But, it did.
At about 5 a.m. Tara woke up with an incredible headache and couldn’t
feel or move the right side of her body. She says this is where she
can’t recall things too clearly, but she found out later that she
called her mother, Betty, who lives a 1/2 mile away. Then without
realizing she already telephoned her mom, Tara shouted for her
daughter, Maeghan who is 12 years-old, and told her that she couldn’t
feel or move her right arm or leg and to call her granny to come
quick. Betty who was already on the way, called 911, as well as Tara’s
family doctor, Matt Windrow, M.D. He said to get her to the hospital
right away. Tara kept asking Betty to get in touch with Arch, but
she had no way to contact him.
After arriving at Medina Community Hospital
doctors performed a CT Scan and found a bleed on her brain. They then
rushed her by
ambulance (Airlife could not fly due to fog) to Methodist Hospital in
San Antonio where Dr. Windrow had already contacted them for her admittance
to the Neuro ICU.
Arch was trying to reach Tara at home and then
called her on her
cell phone. Maeghan answered and explained what was going on.
Luckily, he was able to get a flight out of Israel later that day and
he arrived early the next morning. Tara’s brother, Chad, and wife,
Beth, arrived from Chicago, within hours. Tara’s family said
that
she complained of severe pain in her head but luckily she remembers little
for almost the first week.
Because the doctors were uncertain of what
caused the pain they were reluctant to give Tara pain killers for
several hours. Finally, they were able to give her Morphine and she
gained a bit of relief from the pain. Dr. Frank Fichtel, a
neurosurgeon, who was requested by Dr. Windrow, saw Tara and
ordered an MRI. Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive and
they scheduled another MRI with the dye to better determine what had
happened. Fortunately for Tara her vital signs were stable and had been
ever since EMS had arrived for her in D’Hanis.
The next morning, the medical team decided she
needed another MRI and on Saturday evening they finally had a
diagnosis. The waiting was horrible for the family as they had no idea
what was wrong. That evening Dr. Fichtel explained to the family
that Tara had an Arterio-Venous Malformation in the top portion of her
brain.
Arteriovenous malformations are masses of
abnormal blood vessels which grow in the brain. They consist of a blood
vessel
“nidus” (nest) through which arteries connect directly to veins,
instead of through the elaborate collection of very small vessels
called capillaries. Some people are born with the nidus, but as the
years go by, it tends to enlarge as the great pressure of the
arterial vessels can not be handled by the veins that drain out of
it. This causes a large collection of worm-like vessels to develop
(malform) into a mass capable of bleeding at some future time. These malformations
are most likely to bleed between the ages of 10 - 55; after 55, the
chances of bleeding diminishes rapidly. Before 55, the likelihood
of hemorrhaging is between 3% and 4% per year, with a death incidence of
about 1%. Once an AVM patient has hemorrhaged, the risk of having
another one might approach 20% during the first year, and gradually
lessen to about 3% to 4% over the next few years.
AVMs can occur in any area of the brain, and
may be either small or large. When they hemorrhage, they usually do so
with a limited amount of blood, unlike the hypertensive hemorrhages
of other stroke patients. Loss of neurologic function depends on
both the location of the AVM and the amount of bleeding. Many patients
have very small hemorrhages, often multiple. They may display
convulsions before even knowing about the presence of an AVM. Some
patients suffer with headaches, often unrelated to the AVM which are
usually found with a CT scan or brain MRI. In rare instances, children
are born with large AVM’s and are found to have heart failure
because the malformation makes the heart work beyond its capacity.
These lesions are surrounded by a very discrete
layer of abnormal, nonfunctioning brain tissue, thus allowing their
removal with relative safety to the surrounding brain. This factor
is of the
utmost importance to the brain surgeon, who can take advantage of this
natural separation between normal brain tissue and the abnormal vascular
malformation.
Larger malformations may be made more
surgically manageable with a technique called embolization. With
this procedure an angiogram becomes a therapeutic tool. The
interventional angiographer is capable of filling the malformation
with agents which help decrease the blood supply to the malformation
(coils, glues, plastic spheres, balloons, etc). This makes surgery
easier in some cases. The technique has been used as the primary
treatment as well, and has apparently been successful in some cases.
Perhaps surgery is still the best way to go if the decision has
been made to do something to eliminate the AVM for good. Surgery
cures these lesions by totally removing them, which in turn means
they will not recur again.
The doctors told Tara’s family that her AVM
had bled out and that it was considered a small amount. Apparently, it
had also stopped bleeding. An angiogram was scheduled for Monday to
ensure that the bleeding had indeed stopped and so that the doctors
could get a better look at the damage. He explained that over the
next week they would monitor her in the neuro intensive care unit and
then if Tara remained stable they would move her to a local
rehabilitation facility the following week. They also told her
family that she would be having brain surgery with in the next two
to four months. The doctor said that the brain heals slowly
and that was a critical point in waiting for surgery.
The first thing that Tara remembers is on
Sunday morning. “My dad, Willie, was walking in the room and I
remember him looking at me and I thought that something was very
wrong with me as dad does not do hospitals. He had been there since
it all happened except to take my kids home on Friday night, but
that is the first memory that I have.” She said with tears in her
eyes. Her mom and brother spent most of the night at the
hospital by her side.
On Tuesday, physical therapy began and Tara
says it was extremely difficult and painful. On Wednesday, they
moved her to a regular room. This was also Maeghan’s birthday.
Unfortunately, she had to spend it at the hospital, but was a very
good sport about it. Then, her friends threw her a surprise party
on Friday and it really
cheered her up.
Tara was moved to Warm Springs Rehabilitation
Center on that Friday as well. There she would began therapy almost
immediately.
On Sunday, Arch proposed to Tara. She very
happily accepted. But, due to time issues with his work, he had to
leave the following week for London and then was scheduled to
return to Israel since Tara was in stable condition.
Thankfully, he was only in London for about 10
days, and then his job allowed him to go home and he was able to be
with Tara.
She was in Warm Springs for several weeks when what the medical staff
thought was a blood clot, developed in her shoulder. As a precaution
a filter was implanted in the vena cava below her heart.
At Tara’s home, a ramp had to be built at the
house for wheelchair access. Her right arm and leg were
non-functional and she had to have to have help getting in and out
of bed, in and out of her wheelchair and in and out of the
bathroom. Someone had to be by her side at all times. Tara
had to learn to eat with her left hand and would become exhausted
even while doing small amounts of activity or when she had company come
over to visit.
On October 5 she was sent home, but within 48
hours of being home she developed a blood clot in her leg. The pain was
terrible and Tara was forced to spend another 11 days in the
hospital with doctors trying to treat the blood clot. Because of
the blood clots forming and concerns over more developing, Tara and
her family met with her neurosurgeon in mid October to determine
when they could do surgery, the date was set for November 6.
Tara was very scared and nervous over the next
couple of weeks. She was grateful to have her family and her new
fiance by her side though.
On the morning of the surgery they performed
another angiogram to attempt to cauterize the area to prevent more
bleeding during the surgery. Unfortunately, they were not able to
do this because of the close proximity of the affected area to the
good blood vessels.
The surgery went ahead as scheduled, taking a
little less than the four hours that it was anticipated to take.
Many people, friends,
family and strangers alike, sent their prayers Tara’s way. The brain
surgery went perfectly. She had been told that when she came out of surgery
she would probably have some residual swelling that might cause her to
lose some of the abilities she had gained over the past two months in
rehab, but thankfully, within 24 hours Tara’s feeling and
movement was actually better than before the surgery. She was in ICU
for four days before they moved her back to Warm Springs where she
stayed until just before Thanksgiving. When she left rehab she was
able to walk short distances with only her AFO (ankle-foot-orthosis
which is a hard plastic that keeps the ankle and foot inline for
proper walking) and longer distances with her walker. She has continued
therapy ever since and is getting stronger every day. “I am now
walking much better and my movement in my arm is significantly better.
My foot is still not back to normal with feeling or movement, but
it is improving. This is thought to have been leftover
complications from the blood clot pressing on that portion of my
brain. I am very thankful to be alive and able to enjoy life to the
fullest.” Tara said. She says she is still paralyzed in her toes.
She can feel to an extent but still has
no movement on her own yet.
She wears her AFO daily to be able to get
around. Her hamstring in her right leg is also very weak and it
makes for a hard time to walk but she manages, she says.
On December 23, Tara and Arch were married by
her cousin, Jon Bielfeldt, a Luthern Minister, in a small ceremony
in their home.
She was able to walk with the aid of her son,
Caleb, who gave her away. Maeghan stood beside her mother as
her Maid of Honor. Arch’s best man was Ken Thompson, a
friend from Del Rio.
Tara says that her family feels blessed for her recovery and the
that Arch was by her side supporting them all. Her family says
that
they feel that his devotion and care are largely contributed to her
recovery and zest for life, along with the fact that she had two
children that she needed to raise. She is determined to get back
to herself and enjoy the rest of her life with her family.
Ironically, last summer Arch and Tara had
talked about the fact that she never used her insurance at work and that
she had thought about canceling it. But, he told her that 10 years
ago he came down with a very rare form of pneumonia and was in a
coma for almost six weeks.
When he woke up he had no movement below his
neck and was on a ventilator. He went through therapy and worked
hard and is now living a normal life with full feeling and
movement. He reminded her that you never know when something might
happen to you or your family. His past experience really helped her
in understanding how she was feeling and the fact that he stayed
with her every moment he was allowed to, will never be forgotten.
Tara’s husband, Arch, is currently deployed
as a contractor with
the British Army in Afghanistan flying large unmanned spy planes in
support of coalition forces fighting the Taliban. Tara is currently a
stay-at-home mom.
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