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When I came out of the surgery, I had to ask Doctor Tamargo what the aneurysm was
like and he said I will tell you. He said you had aneurysm -- was maybe
a month, to my estimation, a mouth to perhaps ten or eleven months away from bursting.
He said, it was very, very thin, Les. And I realized at that point that I had
dodged the bullet, so to speak, that I was one very fortunate person and I never
forget that. My wife and I when -- every single night
when we go to bed, I silently thank god for another day and every day is a blessing.
Every day is like an amazing gift.
They had a fairly substantial aneurysm that was situated on the optic nerve,
on the left optic nerve.
At that point there referred me to the best in the industry and that is Doctor Tamargo.
Mr. Picker was very lucky in the sense that his aneurysm was picked up for other reasons.
He was being worked up for other problems. He was matter of fact about the surgery
which really made us feel more comfortable about it. It's frightening.
The whole idea of brain surgery is terribly frightening.
I spent hours and hours and hours on the internet looking up everything I could
about cerebral aneurysm, so that I came to Doctor Tamargo with 22 questions typed out,
ready to ask him.
We had an interview process and he answered most of those questions that were
on the list and we didn't even check the list. His demeanor, his professionalism,
his willingness to explain, answer every question, not let us even leave the office
unless every question we had everything answered.
From my perspective one of the things that I want to be able to do is dedicate as
much time as possible that I provide as much information, so I can transfer what
I know about this problem to the patient so the patient understands as much as a layman can.
My research has shown that you shouldn't have a surgeon do this unless they had
done it at least 30 or to 50 depending upon which source you consulted, 30 or 50 at least.
So, I asked him how have you done and he checked his computer and he gets back to
me and he says, well, you'll be the 500 and something of other patient who's
gotten through this and that I have personally operated on.
Well, we were just so jubilant that, you know, we were in the best hands possible.
Things worked out very well. Right after the surgery was over I felt terrific.
It is very important to me to not only get the medicine right but also make sure that
the patient understands that we are here not only to cure that problem, but to make
them feel comfortable, and understand that
we are going to take care of them not just as a patient but as individual with a very
unique problem. We understand that people come from around
the world to see Doctor Tamargo and here we are right here in Baltimore.
It's really wonderful. We just knew everything would turn out
right and it did. He got back to his regular routine, his photography.
Life got back to normal, but it wasn't normal and it will never be normal;
it will always be special.