“Why did this have to happen to me now?”
That’s what Martha Walker kept asking herself after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. The mother of three school-age children had just completed her master’s degree in social work. She had worked extremely hard and was looking forward to a new journey in her life, but the pecan-sized tumor in Martha’s brain threatened to derail those plans.
A major concern was that the tumor was situated dangerously close to the area of the brain that controlled her speech and language center. That’s why Dr. Ryan Zengou, a UConn Health neurosurgeon, recommended a procedure called intraoperative brain mapping or “awake brain surgery.”
Being awake during the operation allowed Martha to talk with speech therapist Karen Collins and answer her questions. Martha’s responses helped Dr. Zengou create a digital map of the functional areas of her brain and identify exactly where the tumor was. Anesthesiologist Fritze Bunke made sure Martha was asleep at the beginning and end of the surgery but sedated and awake in the middle.
Dr. Zengou successfully removed the entire tumor and Martha never lost her ability to speak or process language. Martha is impressed with the care she received along her entire health care journey at UConn Health – from the emergency department to the surgical team and now radiation therapy, where she’s currently undergoing treatments.