At the Bedside: Man's sight is restored after brain tumor removal by UTHealth Houston physicians

When Charles Hurst, 40, began to experience nausea and a sudden and severe headache, he thought he could just sleep it off. But after two days of intense pain and increased symptoms that included vomiting and blurred vision, he decided to go to a local urgent care.

By the time he arrived, he had completely lost vision in his left eye. Soon after, a CT scan and MRI revealed he had a brain tumor.

Within one hour of his diagnosis, he was in the care of Walid Ibn Essayed, MD, assistant professor in the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.

Essayed discovered that Hurst had a giant 4-centimeter pituitary adenoma growing from the base of his skull and severely compressing his optic nerves and brain. Pituitary adenomas are benign tumors that grow in the pituitary gland and can lead to various symptoms, including vision changes.

Essayed and his team at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center performed immediate surgery to remove the tumor, and within three hours, Hurst’s vision was back to normal.

“When everything started, I wasn’t thinking it was that big of a deal,” he said. “But when I started losing my vision, I thought I was going to be blind for the rest of my life. The possibility of not being able to see was daunting and depressing. I knew I had to do something. It was either that or I had no vision in my left eye.”

After surgery, Hurst spent a few days in the hospital recovering and is now home. It’s been two months since his surgery, and he is back to his normal life.

“I was so thankful for Dr. Essayed and how quickly the team acted. Luckily, I have no pain. I think about the events of that day and how, until then, I had never had surgery or visited the doctor much. And I think to myself, ‘How much is your health worth?’ It’s priceless,” he said. “In hindsight, that’s what made me take action. It’s all so crazy to me because this is something I’ve had for a long time. After all, the tumor was massive.”

“What is so important about this case is that his vision had been slowly deteriorating, but he didn’t seem to realize it,” Essayed said. “I want everyone out there to know that if your vision changes or worsens, you must seek medical attention immediately. Something bad like this can happen in your brain; without proper medical care, you won’t know it before it is too late. It’s not only eye problems that can cause vision issues; it can also be a brain tumor.”

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