More Determined Than Ever

Regebija Ajvazi overcame a brain aneurysm and is now pursuing her dream of becoming a nurse.

Regebija Ajvazi, or Bika, as she is known to her family and friends, has always dreamed of becoming a nurse. “My mom was really sick a couple of years ago, and I watched how her nurses cared for her,” said the 25-year-old Rochelle resident. “They provided my mom with continuous support and motivation to get better. That influenced my decision that nursing was the career I wanted to pursue.”

Ready for a New Adventure

Bika was on a fast track to reaching her dreams. Two years ago, she enrolled at Kishwaukee Community College to earn an associate degree. Friends encouraged her to apply at Saint Anthony College of Nursing, which she did and got accepted. She was due to start January 14, 2018. “I started crying when I was accepted. I was so excited.”

Bika, who had never been sick before, had much to look forward to. She was preparing to take her finals at Kishwaukee when a life-altering occurrence on December 14, 2017, nearly took it all away.

That night, Bika was studying with friends when she developed a terrible headache. She drove home to take a bath, hoping it would help her feel better. The last thing she remembered was grabbing for a towel. “About an hour later, my brother, Sead, came up to check on me,” she said. “He opened the door and found me lying on the floor. He called 911 immediately.”

A Life-Changing Diagnosis

What was wrong was Bika had a brain aneurysm, a bulge or ballooning in a blood vessel in the brain. A brain aneurysm can leak or rupture, causing bleeding into the brain (hemorrhagic stroke). Most often a ruptured brain aneurysm occurs in the space between the brain and the thin tissues covering the brain. A ruptured aneurysm quickly becomes life-threatening and requires prompt medical treatment.”

“It’s atypical for a young woman to have a ruptured aneurysm,” said Ayman Gheith, MD., a neurological intervention surgeon at OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center, who, along with his partner, Akram Shhadeh, MD, was responsible for Bika’s care. “Typically, the presenting age for an aneurysm starts around 40 to 50 years old.”

In the Hands of Specialists

Bika was rushed to Rochelle Community Hospital, where it was determined she needed additional expert care, so she was airlifted to OSF Saint Anthony, Rockford’s only Comprehensive Stroke and Brain Center. OSF Saint Anthony treats all types of strokes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The hospital has highly trained, highly specialized stroke care staff and the most advanced imaging methods.

Bika had surgery and spent three weeks in the hospital, mostly in the intensive care unit. Following discharge, Bika spent a few weeks working with physical therapists and speech pathologists, correcting problems with her walking and speech. The next two months she recovered at home before returning to work at her family’s restaurant.

These days, Bika is enrolled at Saint Anthony College of Nursing and pursing her dreams again. “I had the best care at OSF,” she said. “My doctors and nurses were amazing. I’m going to a school that is affiliated with the hospital that saved my life. I can’t imagine a better situation.”

In Bika’s case, it took a group effort between the patient and the care team. “I credit our comprehensive approach to the patients,” said Dr. Gheith. “It’s one of the key factors to make the difference in whether a person goes home or not. What I and my colleague do is very important, but it is a small part of what need to happen for someone to be able to survive and do well.”

Morgan Teske has a passion for teaching. He has successfully turned it into a nearly 20-year career, the last 11 at Rockford East High School. That passion also comes with a very big heart.

Teske is a special education teacher. “I like advocating for students with disabilities and making sure public education serves all members of our community, and gives them equal access to education,” he says.

Understanding the challenges of his students helped him when he faced a physical, life-threatening challenge in April 2017. Teske considered himself in relatively decent health, except for managing some high blood pressure and cholesterol – not unlike many people approaching their middle 40s. But suddenly he passed out and hit his head in a fall. He had suffered a stroke.

Teske was fortunate his teenage daughter was home at the time and she called 9-1-1. “I live very close to another hospital, but thankfully the EMTs knew about the stroke center at OSF and they brought me there – where I got very quick treatment,” says Teske. OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center is the region’s only comprehensive stroke center. That means 24/7 treatment for any type or severity of stroke and the OSF stroke team, including its lead physicians, neuro-intervention specialists Drs. Akram Shhadeh and Ayman Gheith, were ready when Teske arrived at the emergency room.

Teske had right-sided weakness and was unable to speak. It was quickly determined that he had a clot in his cerebral artery and a carotid dissection. “It usually happens with people who have inherently weak vessels and they don’t know it until they get in trouble,” says Dr. Shhadeh. “There are not previous signs the patient can have before the big disaster happens.”

It was a delicate and tricky procedure where Dr. Shhadeh needed to go through a damaged carotid artery to retrieve and pull out the clots. “We were able to cross the damaged carotid safely without causing any further damage, and without shutting down the carotid completely and retrieve all the clot,” says Dr. Shhadeh. “And he regained all of his function – began moving his right arm and started talking and came back to a near-normal baseline.”

Still, Teske was not quite out of the woods. Because, as Dr. Shhadeh explains, “when people get carotid dissections, it doesn’t just shut down and form clots, it can also form fast growing aneurysms, called pseudo-aneurysms, which are more serious than the true aneurysm.” And with a fresh stroke, Teske could not be put on blood thinners.

Conducting regular scans while Teske was undergoing rehab, a carotid aneurysm was discovered and a second phase treatment was undertaken. Again, it was fortunate he was being treated at OSF. “His aneurysm was looping around, which no traditional carotid stent can effectively remove,” says Dr. Shhadeh. “We are the only stroke center in Rockford to deploy a new device, called a pipeline flow diverter, which was the only solution for Mr. Teske. We were successful, his aneurysm cured and, if you look at his carotid it looks normal – no sign of damage.”

When told of the looping aneurysm, Teske joked with the doctors it was because of his curly hair. “My arteries are matching my hair.” “I think they did amazing work in saving my life,” he adds. “The stroke program at OSF is great. The aftercare that I got and the compassion and the explaining the road to recovery. I appreciate how they were very vigilant and worked as a team.”

Teske says the experience has helped him make better lifestyle choices and has convinced his friends to consider the same. It also has helped the teacher become the student for his classes. “It made me appreciate what individuals with disabilities or any challenge they may be dealing with in their life,” says Teske. “It helps me identify with my students a little better on that level. Ultimately, it helped me to be a better teacher.”

Teske’s story also serves as a lesson for all of us. “No one is immune from stroke,” says Dr. Shhadeh. “A lot of younger folks, when they experience symptoms – they think ‘no, no it’s impossible, I’m not having a stroke, it’ll go away on its own’ – they can’t think this way. Mr. Teske did not think this way and he came into the emergency room right away. He did the right thing.”

“I just thought I was having really bad heartburn for weeks,” said Jerry Dearing, a resident of Compton, Illinois. “The pain was persistent no matter what I did. But then my arms started going numb.”

A truck driver who delivers construction materials in and around the area to home and commercial building sites, Jerry, then 64, had a stress test on April 5, 2019, at OSF St. Paul Medical Center in Mendota that showed some abnormal activity.

The test was stopped and Jerry was transferred to the OSF St. Paul emergency department until he was transferred by OSF Lifeline ambulance to OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center, the leader in heart and brain care for Northern Illinois.

“Because I had been having these same symptoms for weeks now, my wife and I thought we could just drive ourselves to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. Later I understood why I could not,” said Jerry. “We laugh about it now, but driving would have put us and others at risk had we done so.”

When Jerry arrived, the heart team at OSF Saint Anthony was ready for him. He was met by Dr. Samer Mowakeaa, of the OSF Cardiovascular Institute, who specializes in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. He performed an angiogram to get a more thorough look at his heart. An angiogram is an X-ray procedure is both diagnostic and therapeutic and is considered the gold standard for evaluating blockages in the arterial system. “Jerry was diagnosed with an acute coronary syndrome, which occurs when one or more of the heart arteries are severely narrowed from plaque causing accelerating chest pain," said Dr. Mowakeaa.

The next day, Dr. David Cable, a thoracic and cardiac surgeon with OSF Cardiovascular Institute, performed a coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) on Jerry to get his blood flowing correctly. OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center is only 1 in 15 medical centers nationwide performing CABG and the only one in Rockford. “It was amazing how much better I felt immediately after surgery,” added Jerry. “I had been struggling with pains for weeks and now, within hours, my entire body felt better. I felt more like my old self again.”

He added: “I was worried, but all I kept thinking about was how much I wanted to spend more time playing with my eight grandchildren and teaching them how to fish.”

In addition to the artery blockage, Jerry was reminded of his family history of heart attacks. “Although I didn’t have a heart attack per se, I was certainly going down that path,” he admitted. “I kept making excuses. My advice? Stop the guessing. Early testing is the only way to go. That testing saved my life.”

Jerry is back to work and feeling better than ever. And he is grateful to OSF for his care. “I can’t say enough about the medical staff that I encountered throughout this whole ordeal. Everything went very smoothly as I transitioned from one stage to the next. From the stress test team to the ER staff who worked to get me to the right hospital to take care of my heart issue to the coordinated care that was arranged for me back in my hometown area for nursing care and rehab activities,” Jerry said. “I’m enjoying my grandkids so much more because I can physically keep up with them. It’s all good.”

• Largest Cardiovascular team in Rockford
• Clearly market leader In AAA (atrial abdominal aneurysms)
• Only 1 in 15 centers in US performing Robotic CABG
• Only 1 in 6 centers in US performing Robotic atrial fibrillation surgery
• Invented Robotic epicardia lead placement
• Only center in US performing Robotic TMR for chronic angina
• Only center in region performing Minimally Invasive mitral valve surgery
• Only center in Rockford doing stents (TEVAR)

• Dedicated intensive care beds for complex stroke patients
• Can treat multiple complex stroke patients around the clock
• Neuro-interventionist, neuroradiologist, neurologist and neurosurgeon available 24/7
• Program medical director with extensive expertise always available
• Participate in approved patient-centered research