Innovative Thinking Saves a Patient’s Life

I remember driving home and having an accident, and after that I remember nothing.” said Alexander Mejia, a Miami resident who was 39 in 2016 at the time of the hit-and-run.

Mejia was driving home from work when a car accident caused him life-threatening injuries to his brain and heart. An initial evaluation at the trauma center showed severe damage to the aortic arch just above his heart near all the arteries that supply blood to the brain.

“When I met Alex, he had a rare and critical injury to his thoracic aorta and significant bleeding in his brain,” said Jorge Rey, M.D. “He was deemed as either high risk versus not treatable at all because of the severity of both conditions. It was almost impossible to do it the standard way without thinking outside the box. I felt that I could not let him die.”

Working quickly in a life-or-death situation, Dr. Rey led a UHealth vascular surgery team that performed a first-of-its-kind emergency thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR).  Read the full story.

Tags: Dr. Jorge Rey, endovascular surgery, TEVAR