Sonia Salzman

Sonia Salzman is a youthful, active, Beverly Hills, Calif., grandmother of three. And she has an untreated brain aneurysm.

Sonia's aneurysm is relatively small and she has no history of aneurysms, so her physician at Mayo Clinic is taking and wait-and-see approach to her condition.

"Data from an international study of unruptured aneurysms tells us that small aneurysms toward the front of the brain are at low risk for rupturing," says David Wiebers, M.D., a neurologist at Mayo Clinic and principal investigator of the study. "Rather than subject Sonia to a possibly unnecessary procedure, we are checking her every year or two to monitor the condition of her aneurysm."

Salzman has put the aneurysm "out of her head." "I had excellent care from well-trained, well-informed physicians who have the most advanced medical treatment," she says. "I am enjoying every moment of my life and have learned not to panic about something that the best medical minds have determined to be an insubstantial risk to my health."