Silver Telly Award Winner: Brandie's AVM Surgery

As a co-producer, co-director, co-dp, and co-editor on this one...it was truly a team effort to bring Brandie's whole story to life!

Brandie was suffering from severe headaches and dizziness for over two years. Occasionally, the severity of these symptoms would leave Brandie to pass out or lose vision in her left eye. After an MRI, Brandie was diagnosed with an AVM.

A brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a tangle of abnormal blood vessels connecting arteries and veins in the brain. The arteries are responsible for taking oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the brain. Veins carry the oxygen-depleted blood back to the lungs and heart. Left untreated, an AVM can cause strokes, brain damage, or even death.

Brandie went to Penn to have surgery with Dr. Omar Choudhri, a Neurosurgeon who specializes in AVMS. After several hours of surgery, Dr. Choudhri was able to remove the blood vessel that was causing Brandie’s symptoms. The second day after the surgery, Brandie was feeling better.

“You literally took my headache out of my head, I feel so much better, the pressure, the dizziness it’s all gone”, Brandie states. Brandie is slowly getting back to her life and doing things she could not do before when she had her AVM. She has gotten her life back.