‘There’s nothing more than God,’ says man who survived brain aneurysm

As an ambulance rushed him to Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital in December 2012, Erick Martinez’s future was suddenly in grave doubt.

The then-26-year-old truck driver had been sitting in the parking lot of an Arlington Wendy’s when he suffered a seizure caused by a ruptured brain aneurysm. He had bleeding in the space around his brain — a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

A ruptured aneurysm occurs in just 8 to 10 people out of 100,000 annually, but it is particularly deadly. Forty percent of the cases are fatal, and more than half of those who survive suffer permanent brain damage, according to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

So it’s with a grateful heart that Martinez, now 30, rebuilds his life. Sitting in his comfortable home in Grand Prairie, he is asked how he beat the odds.

“God,” Martinez answers matter-of-factly. “There’s nothing more but God.”

Friends tell him that his story makes them take stock of their own day-to-day challenges.

One in 50 people has an unruptured brain aneurysm, according to national statistics. For most people, the condition — sort of a blister on a blood vessel — is not discovered unless doctors happen upon it during a medical scan for another reason, said Dr. Frederick Todd II, the neurosurgeon who treated Martinez at Arlington Memorial.

But for those whose aneursym ruptures, the effects are often devastating. Symptoms include a sudden very severe headache, loss of consciousness, seizures and blurred or double vision.

“He was very, very bad off when he got to the emergency room,” Todd said. Quick treatment is key. In Martinez’s case, he went into surgery in the early morning of Dec. 13, 2012. He would be told later that he died once during the 12-hour operation, in which doctors stabilized the aneurysm and eliminated the risk of more bleeding.

Surgery is “just the first hurdle,” Todd said. After that, drugs are administered to reduce the risk of spasms in the blood vessels of the brain — referred to as strokes — causing further damage.

Martinez doesn’t remember the first month he was in the hospital, though he was conscious and talking with family. His first memories begin in mid-January, when he felt as if he was waking up. He looked around the white hospital room and saw his mother, who told him what had happened.

“She said, ‘Erick, you had an aneurysm,’ and I was like, ‘What the heck is an aneurysm?’ ” Martinez said.

Martinez’s youth and physical fitness helped him in his recovery after he left the hospital that February. Despite having some confusion remembering family members and friends and what happened before the aneurysm, Martinez said his challenges were more physical than cognitive. He still has some nerve damage in his left leg that can cause movement difficulties, but he was able to walk again after about eight months in a wheelchair. He underwent surgery in 2014 to repair double vision.

During his ordeal, his mother and members of her church prayed for him. Later, in answer to his own prayers, he felt that God spoke to him directly.

“ ‘I was there with you,’ ” Martinez said God told him. “ ‘I was there whenever the aneurysm ruptured. I was there inside the ambulance with you. I have been there your whole life.’ ”

Martinez, who became a U.S. citizen in 2014, hasn’t been able to return to his job because his commercial driver’s license expired during his recovery. But he’s looking for a chance to get back to work and take full advantage of a future that seemed unlikely on Dec. 11, 2012.

“I am very blessed and glad to be alive,” he said.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 4:41 PM with the headline "‘There’s nothing more than God,’ says man who survived brain aneurysm."