Daniel
Ganier, just 29, thought he was way too young for a stroke. Then, an
excruciating headache turned out to be a ruptured aneurysm that almost
killed him.
It was the day after Thanksgiving in 2022, and Daniel
Ganier, 29, was relaxing at home watching football and decorating the
Christmas tree with his 3-year-old daughter, Dakiyah. But just after
hanging the last decoration, Daniel’s head suddenly throbbed with pain.
Daniel’s
wife, Denisha, came home from Black Friday shopping and felt alarmed by
her husband’s thunderclap headache — an intense headache that comes on
abruptly and peaks 30 to 60 seconds later.
“At one point, he
screamed and grabbed the back of his head,” said Denisha Ganier, 32. “It
came on suddenly and was just very severe.”
When her husband
passed out, Denisha called 911. By the time the paramedics got there,
Daniel had woken up and felt much better. His blood pressure was very
high, which could indicate a possible stroke – but, since he wasn’t even
30, Daniel, a truck driver, dismissed the possibility.
He did
have hypertension but had run out of medication about a week earlier.
With his work schedule of constant travel, he hadn’t been able to get
back to his doctor yet.
Daniel declined to go the hospital, insisting he was fine.
But
his wife knew better. Several hours later, Daniel’s headache returned,
and he started vomiting. Denisha knew something was very wrong, and she
convinced him to get medical help early in the morning.
After a
stop at an urgent care facility, Daniel became unconscious and was
transported to the ER at HCA Houston Healthcare. Doctors there diagnosed
a ruptured aneurysm, and Dr. Mohammad El-Ghanim, a neuroendovascular
surgeon and vascular neurologist, performed emergency surgery to repair
it.
The surgery went well, but five days later, severe complications hit.
Daniel’s
heart stopped, he had a blood clot in his lungs, his stomach was
bleeding and his kidneys were shutting down. Doctors put him on a
ventilator, sedated him and kept him in the ICU for more than a month.
His condition was so critical that his wife had to face the painful
likelihood that he would either die or be in a vegetative state.
Danisha
remembers with gratitude when Dr. El-Ghanim sat on the floor with her
and, with a caring bedside manner, drew a picture for her of what was
happening with her husband’s brain, and drew a chart showing his
survival odds.
“It is something that I’ll never forget and that
I’ll always appreciate,” Danisha said. “He and his team really helped
prepare me for what was going on and what to expect. The collaboration
just went really well.”
Thanks to a team collaboration of care
providers led by Dr. El-Ghanim — including cardiologists, ICU
physicians, physical therapists and infectious disease specialists —
Daniel made a full recovery.
“Honestly, I feel blessed,” said Daniel, now 31 and living a healthy lifestyle with diet and exercise. “I feel back to normal.”
Dr.
El-Ghanim said that Daniel’s young age boosted his remarkable recovery.
The most important element in his healing, though, was the team effort
among HCA physicians on his care team.
“It was truly a group
effort across care teams in Daniel’s recovery,” Dr. El-Ghanim said. “It
was not a one-man show and because of that, Daniel is here today.”
An
important lesson from Daniel’s story is that strokes can happen to
people at any age, so everybody should be aware of symptoms and take
them seriously, the doctor said.
Daniel agrees.
“Strokes
do affect people like us, and they’re not just reserved for our
grandparents,” he said. “A stroke can happen to anyone.”
