Man Undergoes 1st Awake Craniotomy, Marries Girlfriend At SSUH

BAY SHORE, NY — On the afternoon of May 9, Luis Pagan, an HVAC installer, was finishing up his work in a client’s home. As the 36-year-old stood on the top rung of a ladder to gather his tools, the unimaginable happened — Pagan suffered a seizure, causing him to fall to the ground.

The last thing he remembered was waking up at the bottom of a closet.

“The customer eventually found me an hour or two later,” said Pagan.

The client then called him an ambulance, and Pagan, of Centereach, was taken to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore.

After several tests, doctors discovered a large tumor in his brain.

For both Luis and his then-girlfriend, Nicole D’Ambrosio, 36, the diagnosis was shocking.

“He felt and looked completely normal, aside from him being sore and in pain from the initial fall,” said D’Ambrosio. “Before this, he was in the best shape of his life. So to have this happen, we almost didn't believe it at first.”

Although the couple felt stunned and scared, they said the hospital staff fully supported them in their time of need.

Dr. Georgios Klironomos, neurosurgeon at SSUH and Dr. Michael Greenberg, attending neuroanesthesiologist at SSUH, told Pagan that he would be a great candidate for an awake craniotomy.

According to the Mayo Clinic, an awake craniotomy is a type of procedure performed on the brain while you are awake and alert. The procedure lowers the risk of damage to functional areas of your brain that could affect your vision, movement or speech, is especially helpful for those who do manual labor.

Pagan would become the first person to undergo an awake craniotomy in this hospital’s history, they said.

However, Dr. Greenberg made the couple feel at ease with such a difficult decision, they said.

“He was such a regular guy that I felt like we were sitting there talking to a friend,” said D’Ambrosio. “He was so open and honest about things. He was just such a comforting person to be around.”

After doing research, Pagan decided that the awake craniotomy would be his best option for treatment.

“It felt like a good thing, '' said Pagan. “They also said it would help with advancements in that field. It gives people hope that you can come back and it doesn't always have to be a worst case scenario.”

The couple, who have been together for 18 years, said the experience reminded them to not take life for granted. They had planned to be married on their 20th anniversary, they said, but after learning about the diagnosis, they didn’t want to wait.

On May 14, two days before the surgery, Pagan and D’Ambrosio were married in the hospital’s chapel.

“I wanted to prove to him that regardless of what he woke up like on Monday, I was gonna be here," D’Ambrosio said. “No matter what, we're gonna get through this together as a team."

Their daughter Jessenia, 7, was D’Ambrosio's maid of honor, and their son, Johnny, 13, was Pagan’s best man. D’Ambrosio's older brother, Jason D’Ambrosio, who is a pastor, officiated the ceremony.

While the ceremony was small, the couple said that the hospital staff went above and beyond to make it a great day. In neuro-ICU, D’Ambrosio said, one physician assistant gave Pagan a haircut.

“Many of the nurses were very excited,” she said. “They actually got us a cake and set up a little table in the chapel room that had some refreshments.”

On the day of the surgery, the doctors made sure that Pagan felt as comfortable as possible in the operating room, they said. Dr. Greenberg even let Pagan choose music to play throughout the three-hour surgery.

He chose Frank Sinatra.

“Whenever I'm in the kitchen,or we're cooking we have Frank Sinatra on as a nice little ambiance,” D’Ambrosio said. “He’ll dance with me, he’ll dance with our daughter.”

Dr. Greenberg told Patch that he woke up Pagan in the middle of the operation, so that surgeons could test his motor functions.

“If they touched an area (of his brain) and he couldn't open and close his hand, they would know that they can't cut there,” D’Ambrosio said. “ If there was an area where you could open and close his hands and move his arms and legs like normal, that was a safe place to cut.”

After about thirty minutes of testing, Dr. Greenberg was able to make Pagan fall back asleep.

Pagan's recovery, D’Ambrosio said, went better than they expected.

“Before the 48 hours was over (post-surgery), he was up and walking around,” she said. “It's not what people would normally have to go through after a surgery like this.”

When Pagan was discharged from the hospital on Friday, dozens of nurses, physicians, and hospital staff gave him an official “clap-out” to send him off.

Not only did the couple leave as newly weds, but they left the hospital with new friends and a new take on life.

“We still want to do a big thing for our 20th. And our guest list just grew immensely because we want to invite all of them, because they've honestly all touched our lives,” D’Ambrosio said. “They saved our family.”