Successful brain surgery reverses patient’s unusual personality symptoms

Lisa Powell was a vibrant, energetic, loving wife and engineer until those close to her began to notice significant changes in her personality. She had lost her love for life.

Lisa started losing her sense of smell several years prior, which is not uncommon with aging. By the fall of 2016, she became inexplicably tired and found it difficult to focus at work. Thinking a six-month sabbatical would help, Lisa mostly rested until attempting to return to work in the spring of 2017. Lisa’s co-workers expressed their concerns that something was still wrong, which drove the couple to seek further medical care while Lisa took medical leave. After a battery of tests and attempted treatments, the loss of smell and other concerns led to a brain scan in June 2017, which revealed a benign meningioma about six centimeters in diameter, the size of a billiard ball, on the front of her brain.

“This type of tumor grows from the meninges, the layer that covers the brain. It can grow near the frontal lobes, impacting someone’s emotions, energy and even their personality,” Dr. Hari Tumu, neurosurgeon at St. David’s Medical Center, said.

Dr. Tumu performed a six-hour frontal craniotomy surgery to remove a rectangular piece of bone from Powell’s skull, exposing the brain and enabling him to successfully remove the tumor. After recuperating for 3 months at home after surgery, Powell earned the all-clear from her doctor to return to work. Today, she’s taking violin lessons, enjoying her career, and she has regained her zeal for life.

KVUE  recently interviewed Dr. Tumu about the patient’s success story.