corrected cert.

[SarahND]

They can do something about it now though !

My sister's fiancé nearly died of that last March, but they caught it in time. Still is a very serious operation to repair the tear, since apparently they had to drain all the blood from his body, put him on ice while they operated and then put the blood back... Well, you'd know more about this sort of thing than I would, Russell, but that's the gist of what they told my sister (after it was clear he would survive-- she had no idea what they were up to while they were doing it.) It is a very rare condition, they said, and perhaps hereditary?
Regards,
Sarah

[Russell]

Hi Sarah

They'd probably call that a Dissecting Aneurysm where it doesn't just blow apart but sort of comes unzipped slowly. At least there is a chance to do something about it.
The draining and bypassing description is a simplified, but accurate description of the lengths they have to go to to repair things.

Russell

[joette]

Yep what killed my Uncle Tommy-he had one about seven years ago which they repaired & he made full recovery.
This time he just was not strong enough for surgery & he was more or less a time bomb waiting to go off.
It was sudden & very peaceful.He looked very serene.