(Reprinted from The Progress)
Saturday, October 04, 2008
By Terry Whetstone Staff Writer
KARTHAUS - The morning of Aug. 19 is one that Chad Maney of Karthaus won't soon forget. The 22-year-old survived a truck crash that could truly have had fatal results, not only for him, but also other motorists.
Mr. Maney started his day out like he did every weekday; he got up early in the morning, climbed into his triaxle truck and headed down the road, but on that particular morning something happened. He wasn't aware of it, however, until he woke up with firefighters and paramedics working to free him from his truck.
Mr. Maney was traveling north on state Route 53 from Philipsburg toward Kylertown. He remembers the Hawk Run intersection, but that's all until he woke up.
Mr. Maney had blacked out, and his truck crossed the opposite lane of travel, went off the road and overturned onto the driver's side.
Witnesses said he was driving well when all of a sudden he turned left and went off the road.
Against his wishes, he went to the hospital via Moshannon Valley Emergency Medical Services Ambulance, but today, he's thankful that they suggested he go.
He said this was the second time he blacked out, the first time was about six months earlier, while he was sitting in his truck at a truck stop. He said he figured it was because he was working hard and hadn't eaten for a while but it turns out that wasn't the case.
When he was taken to Clearfield Hospital, the emergency room staff ran tests on him and detected a spot on his brain.
He was told he needed to go to Altoona Regional Health System, Altoona Hospital Campus, for further testing because Clearfield didn't have the technology Altoona Regional has. Altoona referred him to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Presbyterian Hospital.
He was there on Aug. 25 and met with the doctors who told him he had a brain tumor and the best option was surgery.
"Brain surgery is a scary thing to hear," he said. "But I thought it is something that has to be done, so let's do it."
Dr. L. Dade Lunsford was his physician and he said it was a DNET, or dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor.
The Internet describes it as a small mass present in the right temporal lobe, a slow-growing, benign tumor. Clinically it is in patients present with chronic intractable partial complex seizures.
The illness shows up, generally, in those ages 1 through 19. Dr. Lunsford told Mr. Maney this problem had been present in his brain for about 10 years. There's no real cause for it, it isn't hereditary and is something that shows up rarely.
"It's one of the rarest types of tumors you can get," Mr. Maney said. "How lucky am I?"
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