Cedarville employee's brain aneurysm diagnosis brings new perspective on life
Dec. 29—A local woman who works on Cedarville University's campus has a new perspective on life after a medical emergency and diagnosis.
Donna Fifer has worked at Cedarville for 15 years and is the retail manager at the campus' Chick-fil-A.
In February, she collapsed due to extreme pain in the back of her head and was taken to Springfield Regional Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm rupture. She was transferred by CareFlight to Miami Valley Hospital.
While at the hospital, doctors performed two surgeries to repair her ruptured arteries. However, during the first one, they found she had fibromuscular dysplasia, which is a narrowing of arteries that can tear easily and cause a brain aneurysm.
The doctors believe the disorder Fifer was diagnosed with had created the brain aneurysm over several years.
Fifer said she wasn't really coherent through most of it, but remembers bits and pieces.
"What I do know is I almost died. For me to be sitting here today working — I give God all the glory for everything because a lot of people don't live through ruptures like the one I experienced," she said.
After her medical situation, Fifer had an outpouring of support and messages from the Cedarville community and everyone she's known there for the last 15 years.
Fifer was off work for six weeks with an overall eight-month recovery. Her life has returned to normal, but she still has some lingering effects such as a flashing strobe light in her left eye that affects her vision, some short-term memory loss, headaches and soreness.
Fifer feels her survival was a miracle and used for something greater. In November, her 24-year-old daughter was also rushed to the emergency room due to pain in her head. Because of Fifer's history, doctors gave her daughter a CT scan, instead of giving her muscle relaxers and sending her home, and found she also had a brain aneurysm and were able to properly treat it.
"It's clear that this was all God's intricate design," she said. "It changes your perspective on life just to be grateful for every day God gives you; he might have saved me that day, but maybe the next day was supposed to be the day. We have a purpose, and we need to do what he's telling us to do."
