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CNN Live At Daybreak

Tough Medical Decisions on Brain Aneurysms

Aired May 15, 2002 - 06:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now we have some news about your health. As we become a more medically sophisticated society, science offers us more and more information and sometimes this information leaves us with very difficult decisions.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us this morning with more on this.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

COSTELLO: And it is a difficult issue.

GUPTA: It really is, and no where is it more difficult possibly then when you have a life-threatening problem that you really didn't know about. You feel perfectly fine, you have no problems at all, but then you're suddenly told by your doctor that if you don't have this problem treated it could possibly kill you.

I actually found a story just like that dealing with a brain aneurysm, and it's one woman's story and the story of her twin.

Listen in.

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GUPTA: And Ms. Ardith Eastlund is doing very well now a few weeks after her operation. She flew through that just fine. It was a difficult decision, certainly when -- again when you're faced with something that you really don't have the answer to and there's not an absolute answer and you feel fine. That can be the difficult decision, and that is the curse -- both the boon and the curse of a medically sophisticated...

COSTELLO: Just the thought of somebody slipping something into your brain,...

GUPTA: That's right.

COSTELLO: ... that's scary.

GUPTA: Actually brought it here with us. And this is the actual aneurysm clip that would go across an aneurysm and actually is what pinches off the balloon. And it is a sort of...

COSTELLO: So it's like popping a balloon, right? GUPTA: It's kind of like if you had the balloon right at the -- right over your finger here, you'd actually put this around the base of the balloon so nothing could into the balloon anymore.

COSTELLO: And one slip from the doctor or the surgeon and...

GUPTA: Right.

COSTELLO: Yes.

GUPTA: This is one of the more precise operations in neurosurgery.

COSTELLO: Ooh, you want a good doctor for that one.

GUPTA: That's right.

COSTELLO: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you...

GUPTA: Thank you.

COSTELLO: ... for coming in this morning.

GUPTA: Appreciate it.

COSTELLO: We're going to page you more often. We like that.

GUPTA: I'm -- I like to be here. Thank you.

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