An ocean away from home, Ned Barker, woke up in the middle of the night feeling like his hotel room was spinning.
Ned is a social scientist from the U.K. who studies the relationships between technology and the human body. He flew in earlier that day from London to present his work at a conference.
He and a colleague relaxed afterward over a Chicago pizza and a pint of beer. With a flight back home in the morning, Ned looked forward to calling it an early night.
But shortly after falling asleep, he started feeling extremely sick, with headaches, vomiting and confusion. He was unable to walk and drifting in and out of consciousness.
A few hours later, he was in the hospital diagnosed with meningioma, a tumor in the tissues that cover the brain.
The doctor at the local hospital had him transferred to Rush, where he met Webster Crowley, MD, a Rush neurosurgeon. "I remember being told something along the lines of, ‘If this were happening to me, that’s where I’d want to go,’” Ned says.
No way home
Further scans showed just how bad the tumor was.
“It's called a grade 2 meningioma,” Crowley says. “It's an atypical meningioma, which means it's a slightly faster growing lesion. It was pretty close to the brain stem and caused hydrocephalus.”
Hydrocephalus is a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain that can put pressure on brain tissue. In Ned's case, it was caused by compression of the brain stem by the tumor. This made a flight back to the U.K. too risky.
"The tumor was too large, the swelling was too much, and the blockage of the fluid was too much that a flight over eight hours would be too concerning,” Crowley says. “If he were to decline further during that transport, he may not make it to the other side of the ocean.”
But Ned wouldn’t have to face brain surgery on his own.
“I think my biggest fear in those early moments was being alone and not seeing my loved ones again,” he says. “It was a huge comfort that the team at Rush were able to safely delay surgery until my partner arrived on the next flight so we could spend some time together beforehand.”
Removing a tumor, saving a brain
Because a meningioma is a tumor of the protective tissue around the brain, surgery needs to be precise. In Ned's case, the tumor was pushing on the cerebellum and the brain stem.
His surgery involved removing part of the bone covering the tumor, then carefully removing the affected tissue without damaging critical brain structures.
“When we take the tumor out and everything goes well, the brain goes back to its normal position,” Crowley says.
Crowley described the surgery to Ned, helping him understand the plan and what to expect.
“I remember him explaining everything in a calm and reassuring way,” he says. “He made both me and my loved ones feel safe and informed. We all trusted his judgment completely.”
Even though the surgery was complex, it was a complete success.
“The surgery had taken longer than expected because the tumor was heavily calcified,” Ned says. “Despite that, the team fully removed it without damaging vital structures.”
‘Recovery can be like a snow globe’
Even though the tumor was no longer a concern, recovery from the trauma of a life-threatening situation and brain surgery is not easy.
"One doctor at Rush used a metaphor for recovery from brain surgery that has really stayed with me,” Ned says. “He said, ‘People will notice if you have balance issues, but the brain controls so much more than what we can see. Recovery can be like a snow globe — everything gets shaken up, and it takes time to see where it all lands.’”
Following surgery, Ned needed to stay in the intensive care unit to heal and learn to walk again.
"But having my partner staying with me and my mother visiting every day made all the difference,” he says.
Crowley connected him with a colleague in the U.K. to keep up with his care when he was finally well enough to fly home.
“Over time, as my energy slowly returned, I was able to rebuild my social life and routines as well,” he says. “Recovery goes far beyond physical healing, though, and it’s still ongoing.”
Ned still has some minor balance issues and vertigo, and he continues to monitor his condition because there's a chance the tumor will grow back.
But he works on his mobility and has joined online communities of people with similar experiences for support. He continues to adjust to his new life, thankful for the experts who helped him achieve it.
“Because of all of this, I now think of neurosurgeons — and Dr. Crowley in particular — as superheroes,” he says. “Dr. Crowley and the team at Rush genuinely gave me a second chance at life, and I cannot articulate my gratitude for this."
Ned even expressed his thanks in a paper he published in his position at King’s College London.
The acknowledgements read “Ned would like to thank Professor Richard Webster Crowley and the staff at Rush University Hospital Neurology ICU for their life-saving care during the writing of this article.”
Don’t brush off the symptoms
Ned's symptoms the night he went to the hospital were severe. But he also notes that there were signs something was wrong before that — signs that he chalked up to other causes.
“Looking back, I had been physically and cognitively deteriorating slightly, but noticeably, for quite a while,” he says. “I assumed it was just stress, aging or overworking and didn’t think too much of it.”
As a 34-year-old academic, he was burning the candle at both ends. That can lead to some stress-related issues that are similar to signs of more serious problems.
"Stress does cause some headaches and symptoms,” Crowley says. “So everyone who experiences headaches doesn't necessarily need to run to a doctor.”
But he also advises taking symptoms seriously.
“It's very easy to put off our own health and say this is something I can deal with later,” he says. “Trust your instincts. If there's something that is different from what you normally experience, then it's worth at least talking to a doctor. “
You can learn more about the signs and available treatments for meningioma on our Meningioma Brain Tumor Treatment page. If you have concerning symptoms, you can also call Rush at (888) 352-7874 to make an appointment.
