Mark Drobac

Photo courtesy of Mark Drobac

Mark Drobac was in his garage pulling spark plugs out of his van when he suddenly got the most severe headache he had ever had. He began throwing up and sweating profusely. He managed to get to his house and tell his son to call his wife to come home from work. He was coherent when she came home and called an ambulance, but he doesn't remember anything after that. In fact, he doesn't remember anything that happened until almost two weeks later.

During those "lost" days, Drobac went to a hospital near his hometown of Eveleth, Minn., where it was determined that he had a subarachnoid hemorrhage from a ruptured aneurysm, a life-threatening condition. He was transferred by helicopter to a larger hospital, where physicians told Drobac's wife that her husband was unlikely to survive surgery due to all the blood in his head. They recommended transferring him by helicopter to Mayo Clinic in Rochester. A neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic was one of only a handful in the country at the time doing an endovascular procedure to insert detachable platinum coils into brain aneurysms to prevent blood from entering the area.

The surgeon at Mayo Clinic performed the procedure on Drobac by passing a catheter through the artery all the way to the opening into the aneurysm. Intensive Care Unit staff helped manage his lungs and other problems associated with the condition.

On Thanksgiving Day 1999, Drobac regained coherence and had much to be thankful for.

"If I lived farther from Mayo Clinic, I probably would be dead. I was told I had only a 5 percent chance of surviving the helicopter ride to Mayo Clinic," says Drobac. "I feel lucky every day of my life because I know how much worse it could have turned out. When I left the hospital, one of my doctors suggested I go buy a lottery ticket because I'd been so lucky."

Drobac returned to Mayo Clinic frequently to have the aneurysm monitored. After a year, his physicians determined the aneurysm was at risk for re-rupture and decided to repair it surgically.

Drobac rang in 2001 with a metal clip placed across the neck of the aneurysm. One of Mayo Clinic's cerebrovascular neurosurgeons made an incision in Drobac's scalp, cut a window in his skull, and located and clipped the aneurysm.

Today Drobac takes blood pressure and antiseizure medication and has quit smoking to improve his health. Because of the rupture, he has significant sensitivity to light and has headaches.

"I know what the worst possible headache feels like now, so the ones I have now aren't so bad," he says.

Drobac has nothing but praise for the nurses and physicians who cared for him. "The nurses were unbelievable. Mayo Clinic really is an amazing place," Drobac says.

"My doctors helped me with the paperwork I needed to complete for my job and my life," says Drobac, who had to retire due to complications from the rupture of his aneurysm. "When I go back for checkups, I bring the doctors ethnic foods from northern Minnesota — pasties, turketta, Polish sausage and bratwursts, sweet pickles, venison sausage and my wife's homemade candy. I do it because I want to. They seem to appreciate it and I feel like it's the least I can do."